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Knight, Shade and Dickinson: grieving birds and insects: bobolinks
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A "google alert" address to a blog mentioning Nabokov's "Ada" [ isola-di-rifiuti.blogspot.com/.../notebook-anne-carson-vladimi... ] led me, by chance, to Emily Dickinson and her various poems to the "Bobolink"* They seem to bear no relation to John Shade's verses: 811-813 Yes! It sufficed that I in life could find/Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind/ Of correlated pattern in the game," no correlated pattern.And yet...
According to Wiki sources, this bird "is also one of the many important ornithological references in Vladimir Nabokov's John Shade's poem "Pale Fire" in the novel of the same name. .Sophia Jewett ends her poem An Exile's Garden (1910) with a reference to a Bobolink. The bobolink is also mentioned in the film The Mouse on the Moon in connection with the fictional European microstate of Grand Fenwick,where oddly the bird is apparently common.". There's another American poet, beside ED, who wrote about the bobolink. His name is William Cullen Bryant (1794-1898) and, apparently, he created a wordplay by naming it "Robert (Bob) Lincoln". I found different versions of the lines in various sites in the internet**
Two of the poems by Emily Dickinson reminded me of an ancient English nursery rhyme, mentioned in V.Nabokov's "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight"
"Who Killed Cock Robin." According to Wiki, these lines have been much used as a murder archetype in world culture. *** .VN's inaugural novel in English refers mainly to Oxford and to British poets and lore. Therefore, any connection between Cock Robin and Dickinson's Bobolink poems, passing through Nabokov, must be very slight. However, I thought it would be fun to bring it to the attention of the List since Dickinson and the English rhyme share the spirit of pageants, grieving birds and insects attending Christian, or even a pagan mass. Their point in common? Murder and grief? Loss of faith? Nothing?..
...........................................................................................
* Emily Dickinson (1830-86). Complete Poems. 1924.-
Part Two: Nature - LVII
SOME keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome.
Some keep the Sabbath in surplice; 5
I just wear my wings,
And instead of tolling the bell for church,
Our little sexton sings.
God preaches,-a noted clergyman,-
And the sermon is never long; 10
So instead of getting to heaven at last,
I 'm going all along!
Bobolink Bird
Genetian Flowering and many specied Plant
The Gentian weaves her fringes -
The Maple's loom is red -
My departing blossoms
Obviate parade.
A brief, but patient illness -
An hour to prepare,
And one below this morning
Is where the angels are -
It was a short procession,
The Bobolink was there -
An aged Bee addressed us -
And then we knelt in prayer -
We trust that she was willing -
We ask that we may be.
Summer - Sister - Seraph!
Let us go with thee!
In the name of the Bee -
And of the Butterfly -
And of the Breeze - Amen!
Poem
The Bobolink is gone - The Rowdy of the Meadow -
And no one swaggers now but me -
The Presbyterian Birds can now resume the Meeting
He gaily interrupted that overflowing Day
When opening the Sabbath in their afflictive Way
He bowed to Heaven instead of Earth
And shouted Let us pray -
(The text follows R.W. Franklin's edition; the numbering is 1620 in
Franklin's edition, while it is listed as 1591 in Thomas H. Johnson's.)
The Way to know the Bobolink
From every other Bird
Precisely as the Joy of him --
Obliged to be inferred.
Of impudent Habiliment
Attired to defy,
Impertinence subordinate
At times to Majesty.
Of Sentiments seditious
Amenable to Law --
As Heresies of Transport
Or Puck's Apostacy.
Extrinsic to Attention
Too intimate with Joy --
He compliments existence
Until allured away
By Seasons or his Children --
Adult and urgent grown --
Or unforeseen aggrandizement
Or, happily, Renown --
By Contrast certifying
The Bird of Birds is gone --
How nullified the Meadow --
Her Sorcerer withdrawn!
** Robert of Lincoln
By William Cullen Bryant
Merrily swinging on brier and weed,
Near to the nest of his little dame,
Over the mountain-side or mead,
Robert of Lincoln is telling his name:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Snug and safe is that nest of ours,
Hidden among the summer flowers.
Chee, chee, chee.
Robert of Lincoln is gayly drest,
Wearing a bright black wedding-coat;
White are his shoulders and white his crest.
Hear him call in his merry note:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Look, what a nice new coat is mine,
Sure there was never a bird so fine.
Chee, chee, chee.
Robert of Lincoln's Quaker wife,
Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings,
Passing at home a patient life,
Broods in the grass while her husband sings:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Brood, kind creature; you need not fear
Thieves and robbers while I am here.
Chee, chee, chee.
Modest and shy as a nun is she;
One weak chirp is her only note.
Braggart and prince of braggarts is he,
Pouring boasts from his little throat;
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Never was I afraid of man;
Catch me, cowardly knaves, if you can!
Chee, chee, chee.
Six white eggs on a bed of hay,
Flecked with purple, a pretty sight!
There as the mother sits all day,
Robert is singing with all his might:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Nice good wife, that never goes out,
Keeping house while I frolic about.
Chee, chee, chee.
Soon as the little ones chip the shell,
Six wide mouths are open for food;
Robert of Lincoln bestirs him well,
Gathering seeds for the hungry brood.
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
This new life is likely to be
Hard for a gay young fellow like me.
Chee, chee, chee.
Robert of Lincoln at length is made
Sober with work, and silent with care;
Off is his holiday garment laid,
Half forgotten that merry air:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
Nobody knows but my mate and I
Where our nest and our nestlings lie.
Chee, chee, chee.
Summer wanes; the children are grown;
Fun and frolic no more he knows;
Robert of Lincoln's a humdrum crone;
Off he flies, and we sing as he goes:
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,
Spink, spank, spink;
When you can pipe that merry old strain,
Robert of Lincoln, come back again.
Chee, chee, chee.
*** - The earliest record of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published c. 1744, which noted only the first four verses. The extended
version given below was not printed until c. 1770.
Who killed Cock Robin?
I, said the Sparrow,
with my bow and arrow,
I killed Cock Robin.
Who saw him die?
I, said the Fly,
with my little eye,
I saw him die.
Who caught his blood?
I, said the Fish,
with my little dish,
I caught his blood.
Who'll make the shroud?
I, said the Beetle,
with my thread and needle,
I'll make the shroud.
Who'll dig his grave?
I, said the Owl,
with my pick and shovel,
I'll dig his grave.
Who'll be the parson?
I, said the Rook,
with my little book,
I'll be the parson.
Who'll be the clerk?
I, said the Lark,
if it's not in the dark,
I'll be the clerk.
Who'll carry the link?
I, said the Linnet,
I'll fetch it in a minute,
I'll carry the link.
Who'll be chief mourner?
I, said the Dove,
I mourn for my love,
I'll be chief mourner.
Who'll carry the coffin?
I, said the Kite,
if it's not through the night,
I'll carry the coffin.
Who'll bear the pall?
We, said the Wren,
both the cock and the hen,
We'll bear the pall.
Who'll sing a psalm?
I, said the Thrush,
as she sat on a bush,
I'll sing a psalm.
Who'll toll the bell?
I said the Bull,
because I can pull,
I'll toll the bell.
All the birds of the air
fell a-sighing and a-sobbing,
when they heard the bell toll
for poor Cock Robin.
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