"Perplexed Music"
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Experience, like a pale musician, holds
A dulcimer of patience in his hand;
Whence harmonies we cannot understand
Of God's will in his worlds, the strain unfolds
In sad, perplexed minors. Deathly colds
Fall on us while we hear, and countermand
Our sanguine heart back from the fancy-land,
With nightingales in visionary wolds.
We murmur, "Where is any certain tune,
Or measured music, in such notes as these?"
But angels, leaning from the golden seat,
Are not so minded! Their fine ear hath won
The issue of completed cadences;
And smiling down the stars, they whisper, "Sweet."
Discussion Questions:
Analyze this poem! Pay attention to word choices and imagery as well as what you think the overall message/point/theme is.
It's describing God's will for the world as music. He created everything to work in harmony, like instruments do when they're playing something all together, but because of sin we live in a fallen world so sometimes the music can be perplexing, but sometimes we see the way it is now compared to how it ought to be and that's the 'deathly cold' (?). Sometimes we can't see why something is the way it is, but the angels in heaven, where it's perfect, can see why, I guess? The world is still a beautiful creation despite the flaws sin caused.
ReplyDeleteI like that analysis! Especially how we can't see the big picture/hear the whole song, we just get glimpses and sense this isn't right. But the angels see/hear how it's meant to be AND how it all works together, so from their perspective, it's beautiful.
Delete(This is making me think of The Silmarillion, the whole part at the beginning with Illuvatar directing what to sing and Melkor messing everything up all the time)
ReplyDeleteAnd Eru Illuvatar just weaves the disharmony back into harmony over and over...
DeleteI think perhaps she's depicting our life as if it were a peculiar tune with many strange chords. She's saying experience, which I think perhaps is meant to be like Jesus, since he knows all we go through, patiently plays out the tune which is our lives, and we hearing it/ experiencing life for ourselves, are utterly confused by it/ by life. We're torn by the tune, or by life, from the care free fancies of happy times, and forced to deal with so many sorrows. Then when she says "We murmur, "Where is any certain tune, Or measured music, in such notes as these?", she's saying we complain about the uncertain outcome of life as soon as anything not great happens, like the children of Israel in the wilderness. She says the "angels", or the saints in heaven, because of their experience, know better, and tell us the tune is "sweet", or in other words, that all our troubles, small or great, God works together for our good. And besides, we know there's good as well as bad in our life. I think maybe she uses the instrument the dulcimer on purpose because it is used ordinarily for more regular, every day, "folksy" type tunes, and by this she's implying that all these horrible things we have to deal with, really aren't all that bad. Everyone has to deal with them, and although to everyone they seem terrible and impossible to deal with, they aren't. I think she uses "countermand" because life's tune first tells us, "be happy! Life is good" and then the next thing we know, the tune is sad, and "commands" us to deal with trials.
ReplyDeleteVery good! I think you're right on target with the complaining about things we don't understand, like the children of Israel.
DeleteThere are actually two kinds of dulcimers. The lap dulcimer/mountain dulcimer originated in the Appalachians in the 1800s and is very much a folk instrument. The hammered dulcimer often also gets used in American folk music now, but it originated in the Middle East by at least 600 BC. It hit Europe by the Middle Ages, and was just considered a pretty, somewhat harp-like instrument.
Since EBB probably was familiar with the latter, she probably used the word because a) dulcimer means "sweet song" and b) it's a lot like a harp, which we often picture angels playing.
But your interpretation works too!