Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French supernaturel; Latin supernaturalis. (OED) a. Belonging to a realm or system that transcends nature, as that of divine, magical, or ghostly beings; attributed to or thought to reveal some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature; occult, paranormal. Originally in Christian contexts with reference to the divine.

agony, daddy, and injury end on unstressed

blurred, word, and heard all land on stressed syllables

tautological rhyme

because, messages, and does are off-rhymes

Christ's sacrifice bought salvation for humanity

This reminds me of the legend of Christ's crucifiction, and his last words being "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" Luke 23:34

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)

"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).

Her father wonders why she calls carnations "Christ's Flowers". When he looks up the definitions of these words, he discovers that their root meanings are connected to Christ. (Carnations: Carnatio, the latin, meaning flesh. Clove: From French, for clou, meaning a nail). This is mind-blowing to him because she cannot read, so she couldn't possibly know that these root words are associated with Christ, so how did she know that Carnations are Christ's flowers?

When a person is cross-stitching, they only use one needle. Why does she have pins and needles?

name of the book that this poem is published in

Why does she name her books in her poems?

None of these end-words rhyme with each other, although they all have a perfect visual rhyme.

Why does he not understand and why does he read it twice? Why is he teaching her words if he does not understand them himself?

Why not "awkwardly"?

Looks like the Roman numeral XI, which means eleven

This is a really weird way to phrase this. "Odor carnations have floats" This is not the normal way we structure a sentence. We would say, "The Carnation's odor"

The crucifiction Christ is thought to be an incarnation because of the trinity

dearly loved or a person who is dearly loved I remember this being used in religious context often. Like, "For Christ so beloved the world" etc "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..."

to overspread with shadow; shade. to cast a gloom over; cloud: The incident shadowed their meeting. to screen or protect from light, heat, etc.; shade. to follow (a person) about secretly, in order to keep watch over his movements. to represent faintly, prophetically, etc. (often followed by forth). Archaic. to shelter or protect. Archaic. to shade in painting, drawing, etc.

So this could relate to ghosts

fathomed is like comprehend, or understood, but isn't definite

pore = ponder, study sounds like pour - to send a liquid falling poor - poverty

also means a minute opening, like the pores of our skin, or the interstice in a rock Roman Catholic Church. the interval of time that must elapse, as required by canon law, before promotion to a higher degree of orders.

any of numerous cultivated varieties of the clove pink, Dianthus caryophyllus, having long-stalked, fragrant, usually double flowers in a variety of colors

Used to refer to the color of flesh

Magnifying lenses are supposed to make things more clear, not make them blurrier. Although there is a smaller circle in the lens that is blurry, but why look through that part?

This is a reference to the Parable of The Twelve Virgins. In this parable, there is a wedding party having a parade at night, towards the house where there will be a feast. There are 12 women instructed to stand along the path so that the street will be lighted and the wedding party can see where they are going. Some of the virgins light their lamps immediately, and leave the wick burning throughout the entirety of the night, even though the wedding party is still far off. Then, when the party arrives at their part of the street, they have run out of oil and their lamps can no longer burn. The virgins who kept their lamps unlighted, and preserved their oil until the wedding party was near, had enough oil for their lamps to light their path, and they were allowed into the feast, while the ones without oil were disallowed. Milton is saying that the subject of the poem would surely be one of the wise virgins who preserved her oil, and thus, she would be allowed into the feast. This whole parable is a metaphor for hymens and the apparent significance of a woman's sex life on her worthiness for eternal salvation. If you keep your vagina covered, then you get to go to Heaven.

Nonetheless, their involvement does not shake her from her endeavors which she is consistently diligent about.

She doesn't get upset about the people who try to bring her down, but instead she feels sorry for them and has compassion for them, and wishes that they would be able to ease their emotional distress.

The confident and arrogant people become too emotionally involved in her business. They care too much about what she does. They fuss and gossip over it.

to bring oneself to a condition of worrying or concern

to annoy or irritate

to be too self confident and arrogant

To tell a Christian woman that she is with Mary and with Ruth is very high praise. Mary & Ruth were virtuous. They are always looked at as role models for Christian women because of their chastity, loyalty, and faith, and also because of their relation to Jesus Christ and the part they play in his birth. Ruth is the ancestor of King David, who is the ancestor of Jesus. Mary is the mother of Jesus.

Possibly refers to scripture study and/or missionary work and/or religious involvement.

Only a few people are on the same path as her, so it is very obvious to most people what she is doing and the life she chooses to live.

"the broad way" is the opposite of "the straight and narrow path". The green is the easy path that everybody takes because it is delightful and luxurious. She chooses to shun the parties and luxuries and instead goes down the path of virtue and diligence.

In this context, young lady and lady do not simply mean "young woman," or "woman," but intentionally refer to her social status. To call somebody a lady is to recognize their nobility; acknowledge their gentry. The person to whom the poem is addressed is higher than a commoner.

I think this might refer to the beginning of the universe, the end of the universe, or at least in the snail's world.

This is the same first sentence as Archimedes Lullaby. In Archimedes lullaby, this may refer to he shore of Sicily where he lived.

Sand is a bunch of rocks and matter that have been decayed and pummeled to oblivion by the ocean

Seas of non-existence refers to the Buddhist principle of Anatta (non-self). It is believed that the concept of oneself and having a soul leads to having desires for that soul, which leads to unfulfilled desires, which leads to suffering. The only way to end suffering is to recognize that each person does not have a self or a soul, but is instead made up of five aggregated heaps of existence. To accept this is to reach Nirvana. To struggle with this acceptance is to continue to live, age, die, and be reincarnated.

Iridescence is like pretty impermanence. It's easier/less scary to accept because it's visually pleasing.

You can never step into the same river twice (or once). A swaying body of water is much like a river; you can not step into the same swaying body of water twice (or once) as it is always changing - impermanence. If this is existing above us, as a ceiling, then it may imply that everything beneath it is also impermanent.

It doesn't matter where the shore is. Is this her way of saying we should not draw the connection to the shore in Archimedes Lullaby?

Slow, rhythmic melodies that mothers sing to their children to soothe them into sleep. Often, they contain dark lyrics.

A fusiturricula is a sea snail. Snails are slimy, slow, and have shells. The lullaby may be about its slow, slimy, life, or it may be about its shell.

After everything ends it begins again? appearing and disappearing, evanescence, etc.

Existentialism - there isn't really a point or grander purpose to existing. The Earth is just the place where we exist, and nothing more than that. Our actions are just things we do. Everything we fret and stress about is meaningless in the end even when it seems so important at the time.

oscillating, iridescence, volutions, etc. The snails go back and forth, the shell pattern does too.

according to wikipedia, nacre is the outer-layer of pearls and some mollusks make this in their shell. It's strong, resilient, and iridescent. I think the fact that it is resilient and iridescent is important to the metaphor.

The more she says, "all is well now, hush now, close your eyes" the less I believe her that all is well. If all were truly well, then why keep reaffirming this? It sounds like something a caring friend or relative would say to try to calm somebody when everything is in fact not well.

I wonder why the poet uses "falling asleep" and "sleep" etc. as a metaphor for death - the poet does this with the invading Roman Soldiers in the water as well. Sleep as a metaphor for death is commonly used as a gentle and polite way of saying death, such as when you tell a child that the family dog was put to sleep, or that somebody has gone peacefully in their sleep. The subjects discussed in the poem are not gentle, so why the gentleness of this metaphor?

Significance of stating "it never ends" when the poem is about everything ending?

A lot of repetition in this last stanza, repeating the main take-away points of the poem, I believe, which is that everything ends and begins and recycles, even somebody was great as Archimedes.

Although Archimedes created incredible things during his lifetime, he was just one grain among innumerable grains

an irrational number considered to be infinite

The weighing of Hiero's golden diadem was a significant event in Archimedes' life, but is no longer relevant.

I think this is referring to the planet Earth in general, not a specific place.

How does a mirror destroy a ship? / reduce a ship to ashes? Mirrors reflect things, so perhaps instead of the literal mirror reducing the ship to ashes, it is the reflection of the ship which does so. How does the ship's reflection reduce it to ashes? I don't think the reflection is itself sinister, but perhaps just the existence of it is powerful enough that it replaces the original.

First his works are described as legendary, but then they are described more like garbage. They "accumulate" which could be good or bad, but this word serves more as like a transition from the first description of his works towards the second descriptions of his works, which are as "discarded," "forgotten," and "dismantled".

Everything comes undone, and this is okay and is to be accepted.

The circle of life, the unfolding of life, and entropy?

water is not supposed to be on the ceiling. This is something that indicates something is very wrong, but the connotation of "sways" is peaceful.

Not sure if this refers to midway through his life, possibly around 263 BC when he is aged 51 and Hiero concludes a treaty with Rome, or if it refers to the end of his life, when he dies suring the siege on Syracuse.

I find this wording to be very beautiful. This possibly refers to the shores of Syracuse, as it borders water. If the shores of Syracuse are shores of lullabies, then Syracuse is a lullaby.

Hiero was having a crown made for him out of gold, but suspected the smith was cheating him out of some of the gold provided. He asked Archimedes to verify this. Archimedes discovered that the density of the crown was not the same as solid gold, and thus the smith was substituting silver into the crown and did not use all of the gold provided and was keeping some of it for himself.

tyrant who ruled Syracuse during Archimede's lifetime

a quiet gentle song sung to a child to make them fall asleep

Archimedes was a Greek scientist who excelled in mathematics, inventing, and astronomy. He was extremely intelligent and was supposed to be preserved during the Roman Siege of Syracuse but was killed by a Roman soldier anyway.