{"id":2980,"date":"2019-04-01T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T04:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:43:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:43:31","slug":"2980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2019\/04\/01\/2980\/","title":{"rendered":"April 1st Edna St. Vincent Millay – “Spring”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, \u00a0April 1, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo what purpose, April, do you return again?\u201d<\/p>\n

Several years ago, The New York Times ran a piece on the 1924 Democratic National Convention. \u00a0When teaching US history, I found it helpful to single out 1924 as the meanest of the mean years that roamed the land in the wake of World War I, that brutal, demoralizing war. \u00a0 Clumsy reconstructive surgery for veterans who had not died from their their wounds, marked their bodies life-long.\u00a0 None worse, perhaps, than damage from the new chemistry, poison gas. \u00a0And for a young nation alive with fresh new art forms and \u00a0industrial achievement, exultant with liberating moral codes (e.g., U.S. women won the right to vote in 1920), the post-war years woke anger and fear on many fronts. \u00a0Racism in the US reached one of its most intense boiling points. \u00a0The Ku Klux Klan peaked in numbers and influence in 1924; lynchings of African Americans peaked that year as well. \u00a0The Democratic National Convention played all this out in a way that makes current Partisan nastiness look tame; 103 votes to name a candidate, two evenly matched caucuses (Irish Catholic Tammany Hall vs the Klan). \u00a0Violence was strategic and colorful: \u00a0fist fights, live roosters released in the galleries, thrown chairs on the convention floor (http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/03\/16\/nyregion\/gop-path-recalls-democrats-convention-disaster-in-1924.html?_r=0<\/a>) \u00a0\u2014> \u00a0Read it; guaranteed to blow your mind.)<\/p>\n

Such was the world in which Nobel Laureate Edna St. Vincent Millay, 31 at the time, wrote this hard poem. She lifts a line from Shakespeare\u2019s Macbeth who understood that beauty in words can carry hard edges and liberate the imagination (\u201cLife in itself\/ Is nothing,\/An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.\u201d). \u00a0The poem can invite the reader to recognize human kinship with the mean and violent as well as the tender and brave. \u00a0\u201cOut loud with pauses?\u201d \u00a0Give it a try. \u00a0Edna might hear our efforts to pay attention and be smiling.<\/p>\n

Have a blest week.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

p.s.\u00a0Hard news from today notwithstanding, \u00a0opening day for Tigers baseball is just around the corner; trees begin to bud; I hear rumors of daffodil sightings and I saw my first robin 20 feet outside my West-facing window.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cSpring\u201d \u00a0 1921<\/p>\n

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
\nBeauty is not enough.
\nYou can no longer quiet me with the redness
\nOf little leaves opening stickily.
\nI know what I know.
\nThe sun is hot on my neck as I observe
\nThe spikes of the crocus.
\nThe smell of the earth is good
\nIt is apparent that there is no death.
\nBut what does that signify?
\nNot only under ground are the brains of men
\nEaten by maggots
\nLife in itself
\nIs nothing,
\nAn empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
\nIt is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
\nApril
\nComes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Edna St. Vincent Millay \u00a0in 1933
\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, \u00a0April 1, 2019 \u201cTo what purpose, April, do you return again?\u201d Several years ago, The New York Times ran a piece on the 1924 Democratic National Convention. \u00a0When teaching US history, I found it helpful to single out 1924 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2980"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2982,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions\/2982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}