um, that's a way to yield um, positive. >> Well, just give me a synonym for trodden. It's an unusual
word. >> Um. >> Probably is a word. >> Mm-hm. >> Related to trod. >> Using this context well. >> What's that? >> It's
kind of unusual use in this context. >> Yeah. But, what does it mean? Somebody provide a
synonym. Dave? >> Stand up. >> Stand up. >> Stop them. >> Stop them, trodden.
Trodden out is the near logism here. The invented thing is the [unknown] trodden out.
I'm not sure that anybody's ever used that until now, trodden out. And, so, are you
ready Max for Mills? You know, tell us about Mills. >> Well a mill here, ah, a
mill that would be um, sitting along a river or a creek. It would harness the energy of the
water, of the current. >> Oh, so mill produces power. >> The mill produces power to make [inaudible] or
various. >> Other than a mill that derives it's power from water, is there any other
kind of mill? >> The windmill. >> Windmill. >> Absolutely. >> So, this is not a windmill,
this is not, this is New England of the 19th century where mills are primary economic
structure. And where do we put mills? You started the sentence. >> Ah, along the river, a creek or, or a
body of water or a current. >> Cuz.. >> Because it harness the energy. >> How? >> By letting the, the current
turn the wheel. >> Current turns the wheel, wheel turns another wheel and what happens
is, you grind the grain. >> Mm-hm. >> Or you do, you produce some kind of energy prior to
electricity. So, you need mills to manufacture, need mills to be economically
what mill is, or was. >> Yes. >> Okay. But now, the mills have been trodden, trodden out. So, what's the state of
things? The mills are gone. >> Maybe iii to reconstruct [inaudible] now those turnpike exists. >> Sure. We always
rebuild. We rebuild. We rebuild New Orleans, arguably, the way it way even
though probably we should never built it there in the first place because there's
inevitably going to be, not only floats but second thoughts if I can out it that
way, according to this poem. But anyway, so, the entire basis, the entire structure, the entire business
plan and concept for New England has been trodden out and we're going to rebuild the mills.
Except, where are we going to put them? This is so profound. Where are we going to
put them? Anna? Molly? >> Add a new turnpike? >> Yeah. The only way you can do it is
move the mill to where the floods are now, where the water moves now. Do you think
that Emily Dickinson is skeptical about this? What? Ann Maris? >> Positive, maybe .
Skepticism because um, it's inevitable that others [inaudible] but that seems to reference that. >> I think
she's okay with that. I think she's okay with that. >> Yeah. >> She's okay with this destruction.
It's the destruction of a system that was based on the notion that you could build
something permanent next to something permanent and expect them to stay where it
is. But what's changing is the way the mind works. >> Well, it will even make it
more like a meta-poetic with it. >> We could go. We can do that. >> If we can go there, I
mean, if she's talking about the destruction of a system or destruction of
form, you can think about the way that she's actually constructed this poem which is in
two, four line stanzas. The rhyme is A, D, C, B in both stanzas. But, she's messing with it
because she's got this dashes and she's got this capitalization, so the form is there.
And if you take away the dash and take away the capitalization, it's actually relatively, I
mean, if you just, if you don't think about what it means, it's relatively traditional. But she's
uncertain with this capitalization, these dashes, and she's really messing with, she's kind of
destroying the form that so many people of her time still used. >> And if you were to
diagram the structure of the metaphors here, the conceits, they would go off the
end. >> Mm-hm. >> They would, they never circle back. They never form a completion. In fact, but,
as Alison is saying since the whole poem off the side, and then the comparison that
it would be easier for you to do all the rest of this. To, to train the floods that
slit the hills, scoop the turnpike for themselves and knock down the whole
economic structure of my native land. What would be more powerful than that, this is
only a comparison. What would be more powerful than that is, or more difficult
is to try and put the brain back to thinking the way it used to think. This is
about unconventional thinking. This is about being open to ah, something
unpredictable. >> poets aren't going to think the same way after, harder than Walt.. >> Right, you're really being
meta-poetic. >> [laugh] >> In thinking about this poem, is predictive of the kind of
influence. She's unleashing a flood. And it's the flood of a mind that goes where
it wants to go and of a poem that allows itself to go where the form is going to
take it even if it violates conventions of conceits, of consistent conceits. It's
going to go anywhere it wants to. This is about letting the mind go where it
wants to, within form. Alright, so let's think together a little bit about
the implications of this. This is very powerful. >> Ann Maris, your thought on this? What, what's,
I'm obviously excited about this, I think it's very powerful, do you agree? >> Um, yes. I
think it embodies the, that paradox dazzling gradually that we talked about in previous
poem. Um, sort of it [unknown] this idea of partial truths in succession. And, it's up to the
reader to find this new turnpike for him or herself. Um, it's my general take away. >> Good. Any other thoughts on
this? Why do you like this, Dave? >> I think she's saying, be open to new ideas. Always
be submissive to new ideas and let them take you where they may. If you try to
ignore it, it might do damage to [inaudible]. >> Max? And, and, and if there's, I think it's Anna was suggesting there are still some,
some structure that remains. It's still, it's still a house house of possibility when it's this, built. It
has rooms even though it's, it's an expensive one, it still contain [inaudible]. >> The [unknown] , it's an
impossible one that's to, it's impossible but it's about possibility. It's very hard
to conceive of the actuality of these conceits all added together, particularly
here. I conceit, I see a train slowly swirling off it's tracks, the tracks
disappear. Now, we have a flood, we've got a new direction, a new A and B. And
then, we've destroyed the, in the box thinking that allow us to harness power.
The, this is like a classic Dickensonian notion that the most powerful thing we
have is the brain. It's more powerful even than water. Much later in the course, on
Chapter 2, we're going to be looking about a Tender Buttons poem by Gertrude Stein which is about
water. And she plays with the same, kind of unpredictability of water and water
becomes the metaphor for improvisation. You know, I teach this poem to business people. And it
takes a long time, it takes about 50 minutes and we get to the end. And what
they say on their terms is, this is about out of the box thinking. This is, one of
them said recently, this is about how a 1960, the railroads were doomed because
they thought they were in the railroad business where in fact, they're in the
transportation business, that's a cliche about business plans, about thinking about where
to put your mills. And if you put your mills thinking that that mills will always have to
be by water, then you're going to be out of business, when the floods come. What Emily
is saying is that, out of the box thinking require us a form that allows the brain to
go where it's going to go and to unleash the power of the brain and there is no
equivalent to the mill. The mill would have to be the traditional poem, the form
of the traditional poem that gets run over by the brain. So, she's pre-modern or
proto-modern in the sense that she's working with the stanza, and she's pushing
as hard as she can at the edges of it and exploding the notion of consistent conceit,
and allowing her to do what she wants right at the edge of destroying the whole
thing. So, when we get to modernism in Chapter 2 of the course, the modernist
want to make it new. They want to blow it all up, they want to start again. They
don't want to touch the song, they want to get out of the form, the traditional form
business. This seems to be in a way the Genesis of all that. >> Pretty Whitmanian. >> [laugh] >> [laugh] >> You have
to get a Whitmanian final word. >> I did it. >> [laugh] Good. Good for you.