Let’s see. What to report? Venus in Scorpio. Mars in Leo. This is an unstable placement. Not surprising, Emily is in love. Crazy in love, it sounds like:
#247, 1861
What would I give to see his face?
I’d give — I’d give my life of course —
But that is not enough!
Stop just a minute — let me think!
I’d give my biggest Bobolink!
That makes two — Him — and Life!
You know who “June” is —
I’d give her —
Roses a day from Zanzibar —
And Lily tubes — like Wells —
Bees — by the furlong —
Straits of Blue
Navies of Butterflies — sailed thro’ —
And dappled Cowslip Dells —Then I have “shares” in Primrose “Banks” —
Daffodil Dowries — spicy “Stocks” —
Dominions — broad as Dew —
Bags of Doubloons — adventurous Bees
Brought me — from Firmamental seas —
And Purple — from Peru —Now — I have bought it —
“Shylock”? Say!
Sign me the Bond!
“I vow to pay
To Her — who pledges this —
One Hour — of her Sovereign’s Face”!
Ecstatic Contract!
Niggard Grace!
My Kingdom’s worth of Bliss!
First thing she’s ready to sign away is her life. A mere trifle. You might think that is all she has to offer. But no. Powerful Emily has at her disposal all of Nature. Birds. Roses. The entire month of June itself. All these belong to Emily. She encompasses all this. Hers to give away. Nature, its inhabitants and Time. She has everything except the one thing she wants—one hour with the one she loves.
Even more curious is her identification of him as her sovereign. He is the ruler of her heart. (I hear Irma Thomas warming up in the background.) What also catches my attention is how Emily arranges the world. There the great big him at the top. Then her. Then everything else. She rules all of Nature, but he rules her. She has no dominion over the one she loves. Her enormous power to possess dissolves in the face of her beloved.
That must be frustrating to be Queen of all the world and everyone in it, except the one she desires. All that power for . . . what? Nothing. What good is it if she can’t have the one she wants? (That’s a rhetorical question, of course. No answer is required.)
I find this discussion of love in financial and political terms interesting. All this business of banks and stocks and kingdoms is amazingly prescient. To be governed by love. Bought and paid for, too. Yep, it sure seems that way most times. Sometimes I think Emily had a time machine. She’s visiting our world and then going back to the 1860s to write about it. Then she puts it into a time capsule for us to find.
Have to say . . . it embarrasses me a little that she would throw herself after him like this. A modicum of dignity Emily, please.
Emily Every Day 