511.1863.He found my Being — set it up —
ED’s alternatives (in parentheses); LarryB’s comments [in brackets]
He found my Being — set it up —
Adjusted it to place —
Then carved (He wrote) his name — upon it —
And (Then) bade it to the East
Be faithful — in his absence —
And he would come again —
With Equipage of Amber —
That time — to take it Home —
In Stanza 1 ED offered two alternatives that shed light on her intended meaning. Inserting these:
“He found my Being – set it up –
Adjusted it to place –
He wrote his name – upon it –
Then bade it to the East – ”
Lines 1-3 probably occurred in March 1855 when ED, age 24, first heard Wadsworth preach in Philadelphia. His legendary voice and powerful message “found” her “Being”, filled it with meaning, and “adjusted it” to poetry as her “place” in life.
Lines 4-8 probably occurred in 1860 (or perhaps 1861), when Wadsworth visited her in Amherst and “wrote his name – upon it” [her “Being”]. He knew he was relocating to Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco and “bade” her to remain in “the East” [Amherst].
In Stanza 2, he asked her to:
“Be faithful – in his absence –
And he would come again –
With Equipage of Amber —
That time – to take it [her “Being”] Home –”
As Susan Kornfeld explained in her F511 TPB explication, in poem F325 “the narrator and her lover exchange[d] a pledge that after they die they will rise ‘To that new Marriage’ possible to them in heaven”:
“And so when all the time had failed—
Without external sound—
Each—bound the other’s Crucifix—
We gave no other Bond—
Sufficient troth—that we shall rise—
Deposed—at length—the Grave—
To that new Marriage—
Justified—through Calvaries of Love!”
ED believed that promise was their crucifix-clad troth to marry in Heaven, and, probably as a sign of her “faithful[ness]”, she wore only white until her white coffin descended into its grave.