"Past and Future"
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
My future will not copy fair my past
On any leaf but Heaven's. Be fully done,
Supernal Will ! I would not fain be one
Who, satisfying thirst and breaking fast
Upon the fulness of the heart, at last
Saith no grace after meat. My wine hath run
Indeed out of my cup, and there is none
To gather up the bread of my repast
Scattered and trampled ! Yet I find some good
In earth's green herbs, and streams that bubble up
Clear from the darkling ground, — content until
I sit with angels before better food.
Dear Christ ! when thy new vintage fills my cup,
This hand shall shake no more, nor that wine spill.
Discussion Questions:
1. What is this poem about, do you think?
1. Here goes 😅- she's saying that even when she runs out of earthly sustenance and there's no one with her she will find contentment in nature/natural-food-like-herbs-and-water until she dies and goes to heaven.
ReplyDeleteI can see that, though I think you're looking at it very literally and could dig a little deeper to find what her food metaphors are about.
DeleteI am a very literal person when analyzing things.
DeleteAnd that is one approach, but I think this class will be good for helping you broaden how you analyze and interpret things. Which should be helpful for your love of figuring out song lyrics and so on too :-)
Delete1.I think she's saying that no matter what happens to her, or what has happened to her, she doesn't want to be a heathen and not thank God for whatever good things he gives her, even if He also does take away things she loves. And then she says that things she loves HAVE been taken away from her, but she still loves and trusts in God, and finds some solace in nature. But even still she yearns for complete relief from the trials and sadness of earth.
ReplyDeleteWell put. I think we can dig a little deeper yet, but this is a good start.
DeleteOkay, shoot, you're way better at analyzing poetry than I am
ReplyDeleteSometimes it helps to open a Word Doc or something similar and kind of go through the poem line by line. See below.
DeleteHere's my stab at figuring out what she's saying in this poem, which is a more complete analysis than you necessarily needed to do, but I wanted to give you a really full example of how I would do this.
ReplyDeleteMy future will not copy fair my past
On any leaf but Heaven's.
Copy fair = writing it down over again, like when an author would make a fair/clean copy of a book or poem to submit it to a publisher. Heaven's leaf would be a page of the Book of Life that is mentioned in the Bible -- she's saying no one on earth in the future is going to write down a complete record of what happened in her past, but it will get written down in heaven.
Be fully done,
Supernal Will !
She's fine with her past being forgotten on earth, if that is God's will.
I would not fain be one
Who, satisfying thirst and breaking fast
Upon the fulness of the heart, at last
Saith no grace after meat.
She doesn't want to be someone who fills so far up on earthly happiness and joy to the point of forgetting to thank God after meals.
My wine hath run
Indeed out of my cup,
Either her "cup" is empty because she drank it all, or because it has been spilled. Probably means she feels like her life is empty or dried up. She had wine/joy, but it's gone now.
and there is none
To gather up the bread of my repast
Scattered and trampled !
The food/happiness/work she meant to enjoy has gotten scattered on the ground and trodden on, and no one is even going to help her try to gather up what's left.
Yet I find some good
In earth's green herbs, and streams that bubble up
Clear from the darkling ground, — content until
I sit with angels before better food.
Even though her food/happiness/work is not available anymore, she will make do with what God has provided, the plants and water straight from the earth, which could be metaphors for the few friends or companions or opportunities still left to her. She will be contented with them until she goes to heaven.
Dear Christ ! when thy new vintage fills my cup,
This hand shall shake no more, nor that wine spill.
When she goes to heaven, her bodily troubles will be over, and the joy Christ gives her will never spill out/be wasted.
Since she wrote this in the period before she met Robert Browning, I think Elizabeth Barrett is musing on how hard her life has become. Her mother died, her father is something of a tyrant, and her body and mind are both weak. She used to have friends and used to be able to enjoy all sorts of activities, but those were taken from her by illness, death, and even moving away from her childhood home, so all she has left are a few simple pleasures, maybe her siblings, and only a couple of friends. But she is contented with those because that means she isn't taking the blessings she does have for granted. She's feeling obscure and forgotten (assuming no one will ever write her biography), but she's not whining about it.