Edward Hopper "Automat"

At Friday's talk, Carol projected this picture, then asked audience members to talk to each other about what we saw in the painting. Don't interpret, just say what you see. One of the goals was to show how much more you could interpret while talking to someone else.

Next, she read us Emily Dickinson's "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark," then asked us to reread it and talk to each other about what we saw. Again, it seems that what we saw together, in pairs, far exceeded what we saw individually. We didn't have time to compare this poem to Frost's Aquainted With the Night, but that was next in the packet.

We grow accustomed to the Dark --
When light is put away --
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye --

A Moment -- We uncertain step
For newness of the night --
Then -- fit our Vision to the Dark --
And meet the Road -- erect --

And so of larger -- Darkness --
Those Evenings of the Brain --
When not a Moon disclose a sign --
Or Star -- come out -- within --

The Bravest -- grope a little --
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead --
But as they learn to see --

Either the Darkness alters --
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight --
And Life steps almost straight.