ED-LarryB

783.1863.Never for Society 

ED’s three alternate words in parentheses

Never for Society
He shall seek in vain—
Who His own acquaintance
Cultivate—Of Men

Wiser Men (One, Ear) may weary—
But the Man within
Never knew Satiety—
Better (Braver) entertain

Than could Border Ballad—
Or Biscayan Hymn—
Neither introduction
Need You—unto Him—

“A majority of the poems written before this one in Dickinson’s oeuvre exhibit a painful yearning for a Beloved. In this one the Beloved has been internalized as Self” (Adam DeGraff, The Prowling Bee, F783, 1863, ‘Never for Society’)

Your explication sentence, Adam, says better and in fewer words my comment on the previous poem, ‘Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—’. As always, ED said it best, but camouflaged:

“Renunciation—is the Choosing
Against itself—
Itself to justify
Unto itself—”

An interpretation:

Renunciation—is the Choosing
Against myself—
Myself to justify
Unto myself—

In few words, she renounced romance and committed herself to poetry. In her newly coined word of 1882, she left ““Little Girl”hood” behind and became an adult. She had shed her pathological infatuation for Charles Wadsworth, but, to her credit, she cherished him as a friend until she died:

ED’s Letter L994, August 22, 1882, to James D. Clark, Wadsworth’s best friend, four months after Wadsworth’s  death and four years before hers.

“………….. He was my Shepherd from “Little Girl”hood and I cannot conjecture a world without him, so noble was he always – so fathomless – so gentle. ……………”

ED’s Letter L1298, April 15, 1886, to Charles H. Clark, James Clark’s brother, four weeks before she died:

“…………….. “With the exception of my Sister who never saw Mr Wadsworth, your Name alone remains. ‘Going Home,’ was he not an Aborigine of the Sky? The last time he came in Life, I was with my Lilies and Heliotropes, said my Sister to me, “the Gentleman with the deep voice wants to see you, Emily,” hearing him ask of the Servant. “Where did you come from,” I said, for he spoke like an Apparition. [Wadsworth appeared unannounced at ED’s front door in summer 1880]

““I stepped from my Pulpit from to the Train” was [his] simple reply, and when I asked “how long”, “Twenty Years” said he with inscrutable roguery – but the loved Voice has ceased, and to some one who heard him “Going Home,” it was sweet to speak. ………….”. [Wadsworth visited ED 20 years earlier, in summer 1860]

Miller, C, and D. Mitchell, 2024, The Letters of Emily Dickinson’ (p. 687). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

Second half 1863. Five alternate words and one phrase, in parentheses

Some such Butterfly be seen
On Brazilian Pampas —
Just at noon — no later — Sweet (Than) —
Then — the License (Vision, Pageant) closes —

Some such Spice (Rose) — express – and pass —
Subject (present) to Your Plucking —
As the Stars — You knew last Night —
Foreigners (Know not You -) — This Morning —

‘Some such Butterfly be seen’ (Fr661) could easily be about Sue, whom ED called “Butterfly” in ‘One Sister have I in our house’ (Fr7, 1858) and “Sweet” in ‘That first Day, when you praised Me, Sweet’ (470.1862). But, using ED’s alternative words and phrase, the poem becomes universal:

“Just at noon — no later — (Than) —
Then — the (Vision) closes —

“Some such (Rose) — express – and pass —
(Present) to Your Plucking —”

We all have missed opportunities because we hesitated. Horace warns us, “carpe diem”:

“Cut short long-term hopes. While we are speaking, envious life
will have fled: seize the day, trusting the future as little as possible.”

(Ode 11, Lines 7-8)

 

 

782.1863. Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—

ED’s alternate words in parentheses:

Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—
The letting go
A Presence—for an Expectation—
Not now—
The putting out of Eyes—
Just Sunrise—
Lest Day—
Day’s Great Progenitor—
Outvie (Outshow, Outglow)
Renunciation—is the Choosing
Against itself—
Itself to justify
Unto itself—
When larger function—
Make that appear—
Smaller—that Covered (flooded, sated) Vision—Here—

 

On ‘The Prowling Bee’(March 25, 2025), “Anonymous” and “d. scribe” (Adam DeGraff) suggested this poem is about a “letting go of a Presence (a desired love?) for the expectation of something beyond”. This take is also mine, with a further suggestion that the seed of this poem is ED’s “letting go” of her pathological infatuation for Rev. Charles Wadsworth for her vision of poetic fame . She was 24 when she first heard him preach; he was 16 years older, married with two children, and a pew-filling pastor at Philadelphia’s Arch Street Presbyterian. She felt spiritual kinship with him, and he may have been her muse for some poems, but romantic partner he was not.

For a fuller explanation of the biographical history between ED and Wadsworth, see my comments on the ‘ED-LarryB’ blog

Biographic History of ED and Reverend Charles Wadsworth

An interpretation of ‘Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue’ (F782, ED’s alternate words in parentheses):

 

L1-L3:

Renunciation is a painful virtue,
The letting go of
A cherished bond for a greater goal.

L4-L8:

Not now
Abandoning my vision of being a poet,
But rebirth,
Lest infatuation,
Love’s great progenitor,
(Outglow) my dream.

L9-L12:

Renunciation is the choosing
Against myself,
Myself to justify
Unto myself.

L13-L16:

When larger vision
Make that romance appear
Smaller, my flooded vision has won.

 

About the time Charles Wadsworth resigned from Arch Street Presbyterian in Philadelphia and sailed to San Francisco (May 1, 1862), ED decided to wear only white for the rest of her life, including her funeral dress and her coffin. My guess is that white was an outward sign of her “trothed” lifelong faithfulness to him and of her resolution to devote her life to poetry.

Sixteen years later (1879) when a real suitor, Judge Otis Lord, asked her hand in marriage, or at least some mutually satisfying relationship (e.g., ED’s favorite female author, ‘George Elliot’, and George Henry Lewes), she said “No”. Apparently, by 1879 she had solidified her resolution to devote her life to poetry, as Adam DeGraff wisely commented in the next poem (TPB, FR783):

“A majority of the poems written before this one in Dickinson’s oeuvre exhibit a painful yearning for a Beloved. In this one the Beloved has been internalized as Self.”

Letter (L562) from ED to retired Judge Otis Phillips Lord, about 1878. Heavily censored by someone after ED’s death, probably her brother, Austin.

Top of  sheet cut off.

“Dont you know you are happiest while I withhold and not confer – dont you know that “No” is the wildest word we consign to Language
. . . . to lie so near your longing – to touch it as I passed, for I am but a restive sleeper and often should journey from your Arms through the happy night, but you will lift me back, wont you, for only there I ask to be – I say, if I felt the longing nearer – than in our dear past, perhaps I could not resist to bless it, but must, beacuse [sic] it would be right.

“The “Stile” is God’s – My Sweet One – for your great sake – not mine – I will not let you cross – but its all your’s, and when it is right I will lift the Bars, and lay you in the Moss – You showed me the word.

“I hope it has no different guise when my fingers make it. It is Anguish I long conceal from you to let you leave me, hungry, but you ask the divine Crust and that would doom the Bread.

[sheet cut off]

………………………………………………………

“It may surprise you I speak of God – I know him but a little, but Cupid taught Jehovah to many an untutored Mind – Witchcraft is wiser than we –”

Unsigned

781.1863.Remorse — is Memory — awake —

ED’s alternate words and phrases in parentheses:

Remorse — is Memory — awake —
Her Parties all (Companies) astir —
A Presence of Departed Acts —
At window — and at Door —

Its Past — set down before the Soul
And lighted with a Match —
Perusal — to facilitate —
And help Belief to stretch (reach)—  (Of it’s Condensed Despatch )
,
Remorse is cureless — the Disease
Not even God — can heal —
For ’tis His institution — and
The Adequate (Complement) of Hell —

Franklin (1998) estimates ED copied this poem into Fascicle 37 about second half of 1862.

ED offers four alternative words or phrases. I prefer her original word choice in Line 2, her alternate phrase in Line 8, and her alternate word in Line 12:

Remorse — is Memory — awake —
Her Parties all astir —
A Presence of Departed Acts —
At window — and at Door —

Its Past — set down before the Soul
And lighted with a Match —
Perusal — to facilitate —
Of its Condensed Despatch

Remorse is cureless — the Disease
Not even God — can heal —
For ’tis His institution — and
The Complement of Hell —

Definitions from ‘ED Lexicon’ (EDL):

1. Parties             (L2)            Opposing sides in a dispute
2. Lighted           (L6)             Illuminated (my inference, not in EDL)
3. Condensed     (L8)             Collected; settled; gathered
4. Despatch        (L8)             Riddance, clearance, disposal (noun)
5. Complement  (L12)           Equal; equivalent

‘Remorse — is Memory — awake —’ (F781) is universal. We’ve all said or done things we wish we hadn’t. Taken to extreme, we obsess in a woulda-coulda-shoulda spiral that goes nowhere. But poems don’t come from nowhere, they germinate from seed. I think the seed for this poem was ED’s perceived abandonment by Reverend Charles Wadsworth when he sailed to San Francisco on May 1, 1862. We don’t know what her assumptions were about his reason for leaving the east coast, but she reacted with poems ranging from blame to pleading to forgiving (1862-1863), and, seventeen years later, to inquiring how he is faring (1879):

1. Blame (‘Take your Heaven further on —’, second half of 1862, F672),
2. Pleading (‘A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!’, second half 1863, F673),
3. Forgiving (‘That I always did love’, second half 1863, F652,)*; (‘Tis true – They shut me in the Cold’, F658, second half 1863)
4. Reconciliation (‘Spurn the temerity’, 1879, F1485)*

*Calvary poems 8 & 12 of 12

Wadsworth’s real reason for leaving Philadelphia stemmed from friction with his congregation over whether the Bible condoned slavery. He believed it did and most of them did not. Civil War fever ran hot and Wadsworth resigned from his pulpit of 12 years, despite his enormous success at filling pews. ED was probably unaware of his real motivation and felt he left because of her. She was wrong, hence the remorse expressed in this poem, F781 (second half 1863). For a fuller explanation of the biographical history between ED and Wadsworth, see my comments on the ‘ED-LarryB’ blog

Biographic History of ED and Reverend Charles Wadsworth

A final question, Why is “Remorse” feminine in Line 2 , “Her”, and neuter in Line 5, “Its”?

 

Larry Barden    May 31, 2025

 

Death is potential to that Man
Who dies — and to his friend —
Beyond that — unconspicuous
To Anyone but God —

Of these Two — God remembers
The longest — for the friend —
Is integral (subsequent)— and therefore
Itself dissolved — of God —

ED Lex has 14 definitions of  “dissolved”. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe – I’ll take #14:

• Definition 14: “Absorbed”

An interpretation of ‘Death is potential to that Man’:

1. “Death is important to Wadsworth,
   Who dies — and to his friend, ED—
   Beyond that — unimportant
   To Anyone but God —
2. Of these Two — God remembers
   The longest — ED —
   Because she Is part of God’s plan.— and therefore
   Herself absorbed in God —”

Too far fetched? Inconsistent as it might seem, given her distrust of God. But ED firmly believed her poems would be immortal.

She was right.

 

I’ve seen a Dying Eye
Run round and round a Room –
In search of Something – as it seemed –
Then Cloudier become –
And then – obscure with Fog –
And then – be soldered down
Without disclosing what it be
‘Twere blessed to have seen –

Assuming Lines 1-7 report ED’s factual observations at a death bed, Line 8 is pure speculation. My first take was positive, but then I realized Line 8 could just as well read “‘Twere terror to have seen –”. As usual, Susan Kornfeld said it well on TPB:

• “The poem ends with the speaker frustrated that nothing has been revealed, but Dickinson seems to imply that the dying are not ‘blessed to have seen’ anything.”

It’s ironic that a poet who claims to have heard the music of the spheres, too wonderful for her to put in words, should fixate on the apparent absence of witnessed evidence from the dying as they cross over the bar. Perhaps she simply enjoyed contrariness.

Smiling back from Coronation
May be Luxury —
On the Heads that started with us —
Being’s Peasantry —

Recognizing in Procession
Ones We former knew —
When Ourselves were also dusty —
Centuries ago —

Had the Triumph no Conviction
Of how many be —
Stimulated — by the Contrast —
Unto Misery —

 

My take on this incredibly obscure poem is one of sadness and misery. What ED thought was her royal coronation, spiritual marriage to Charles Wadsworth, turned out to cause ED years of misery (‘The Day that I was crowned’, F613).

An interpretation of each stanza in one sentence:

1. Smiling back at my “Coronation” / may seem a luxury / to friends who started life with me, / all of us just small town Amherst girls. //
2. I recognized in the coronation procession / people I used to know / when I was uncoronated, / which seems like centuries ago.//
3. Had my triumph no real conviction, / as happens in many marriages, / I would not have been so surprised by the contrast between / my early expectations and later misery.