773.1863.Conscious am I in my chamber

Variant A. Sent to Sue; signed Emily; Lines 1-10 (first leaf) missing.
(ED’s alternative words in parentheses)

Nor Myself to Him, by accent
Forfeit probity.
Weariness of Him, were quainter
Than Monotony
Knew a particle, of Space’s
Vast society –
Neither if He visit other –
Do He dwell or nay
Know I – just (But) instinct esteem Him
Immortality

 

Variant B

Conscious am I in my Chamber –
Of a shapeless friend –
He doth not attest by Posture –
Nor confirm – by Word –

Neither Place – need I present Him –
Fitter Courtesy
Hospitable intuition
Of His Company –

Presence – is His furthest license –
Neither He to Me
Nor Myself to Him – by Accent –
Forfeit Probity

Weariness of Him, were quainter
Than Monotony
Knew a Particle – of
Space’s Vast Society –

Neither if He visit Other –
Do He dwell – or Nay – know I-
But Instinct esteem Him (Report Him)
Immortality –

772.1863.Essential Oils – are wrung –

772.1863.Essential Oils – are wrung –

Essential Oils – are wrung –
The Attar from the Rose
Be not expressed by Suns – alone –
It is the gift of Screws –

The General Rose – decay –
But this – in Lady’s Drawer Make Summer –
When the Lady lie
In Ceaseless Rosemary –

 

An interpretation of ‘Essential Oils – are wrung –’, Fr772:

 

Great poems, like attar from the rose, are not composed by inspiration alone, they are the gift of pain and toil.

Ordinary poems die young, but great poems shed warm light after their poet dies.

 

ED probably composed ‘Essential Oils – are wrung –’ to honor her favorite poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who died in 1861.

771.1863.We miss her not because we see

771.1863.We miss her not because we see
(Possessive pronoun, it’s, corrected in Line 3. ED’s alternative words used in Lines 4, 5, 8.)

We miss Her, not because We see –
The Absence of an Eye –
Except (its) Mind accompany
(Deprive) Society

As slightly as the (Flights) of Stars –
Ourselves – asleep below –
We know that their superior Eyes
(Convey Us -) – as they go –

An interpretation:

We miss Her not because we notice the absence of her Eye (Body), but because her death has deprived Society of her Mind (Soul).

We miss her Eye (body) as slightly as the Flights of Stars passing overhead while we sleep. We know that their superior Eyes convey our souls (Minds) as they go.

This poem (F771) is probably about Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), ED’s favorite poet.

770 1863.Strong draughts of their refreshing minds

Strong Draughts of Their Refreshing Minds
To drink – enables Mine
Through Desert or the Wilderness
As bore it sealed Wine

To go elastic – Or as One
The Camel’s trait – attained –
How powerful the stimulus
Of an Hermetic Mind –

The “it” in Line 4 refers to “Mine” (my mind) in Line2. Line 4 translates as “As if my mind bore sealed Wine”. The “Hermetic Mind” in Line 8 refers to and slant rhymes with “sealed Wine” in Line 4.

“Hermetic” in Line 4 implies a mind sealed in both directions, in and out. ED probably did not mean a closed mind, but that’s what her words imply. Possibly she meant a mind resistant to the latest fashions in public discourse, poetic styles, or religious dogma. David Preest lists Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot as likely leaders on Emily’s List of “Hermetic Minds”.

 ED has convinced me that virtually all of her poems have two or more levels of meaning: poetic and historical. These levels cannot be separated into two ivory towers, as most academics do.

The reason for her instant and continuing public adulation (1890-present) was and is, by far, poetic. She is one of the “Greats” that she always dreamed to be, despite her lifelong refusal to publish. That refusal freed her from criticism and allowed her to explore the outer boundaries of poetic power.

Her refusal to publish was only possible because of the lifelong financial and daily social/housekeeping support of her family, especially her father and sister, respectively. Throughout her life, the Dickinsons hired servants, first Negro and later Irish, some of whom became much more than housekeepers for ED.

My point is that our appreciation and love of ED’s poems can be enriched by understanding both poetic and historical levels of her sound and sense. We impoverish ourselves if we ignore their historical base.

769.1863.These saw visions

769.1863.These saw visions
(ED’s alternative words accepted)

These – saw Visions –
(Bind) them softly –
These – held Dimples –
Smooth them slow –
This – addressed departing accents –
(Soon) – Sweet Mouth – to miss thee so –

This – we stroked –
Unnumbered – Satin –
These – we (fondled in) our own –
Fingers of the Slim Aurora –
Not so arrogant – this Noon –

These – adjust – that ran to meet Us –
Pearl – (the) stocking – Pearl (the) Shoe –
Paradise – the only Palace
Fit for Her reception – now –

Amazing prescience. In 1886 Sue prepared ED’s body for funeral and burial. ED described her body as she would like Sue to see it.

Her eyes had seen visions, her cheeks shown dimples, her lips had said goodbye. “Sweet Mouth”, I’ll miss thee so.

This hair I stroked like satin, these fingers I fondled in my own. They aren’t arrogant this noon.

These feet that ran to meet me wear pearl stockings and pearl shoes, fit only for heaven now.

613.1863.The Day that I was crowned

613.1863.The Day that I was crowned

The Day that I was crowned
Was like the other Days —
Until the Coronation came —
And then — ’twas Otherwise —

As Carbon in the Coal
And Carbon in the Gem
Are One — and yet the former
Were dull for Diadem —

I rose, and all was plain —
But when the Day declined
Myself and It, in Majesty
Were equally — adorned —

The Grace that I — was chose —
To Me — surpassed the Crown
That was the Witness for the Grace —
‘Twas even that ’twas Mine —

During summer 1860. Reverend Charles Wadsworth visited ED at the Dickinson’s “Homestead” in Amherst. My guess is that his visit was “The Day that I was crowned” (Line 1, F613). I think that in ED’s fertile imagination, “Diadem” was a codeword for “Mrs.”. Supporting that contention, Poem F194 (1861), “Title divine, is mine”, begins:

“Title divine, is mine.
The Wife without the Sign –
Acute Degree conferred on me –
Empress of Calvary –
Royal, all but the Crown –
Betrothed, without the Swoon
God gives us Women –
. . . . ”

After that summer day in 1860, ED was convinced Wadsworth had told her that they could marry when they met in Heaven. Meanwhile, ED resigned herself to a life of chastity, “Betrothed, without the swoon / God gives us Women”. After about 1862 she wore only white, and she was buried in a white coffin in 1886.

From 1861-1863, ED used capitalized “Diadem” in 13 poems, skipped the years 1864-1865, and in 1866 she used “Diadem” in one poem, F1121. She never used the word in a poem before 1861 or after 1866. She capitalized “Diadem” in all 14 poems. Clearly, “Diadem” was important to ED during 1861-1863 and in 1866, but not before or after those years.

“Diadem” was also one of Wadsworth’s favorite words. He used it in an estimated 56 sermons during 33 years of preaching, 1850-1882. He used it in 20 sermons he delivered in San Francisco, 1862-1869. After he returned to Philadelphia in 1869, he used the word “diadem” in 15 published sermons, for a total of 35 sermons in 20 years. If, in his first 12 years of ministry (Philadelphia, 1850-1862), he used the word at the same rate, his lifetime total use of “diadem” was about 56 times in 33 years of ministry.

In 1941, without benefit of computer word search, Mary Barbot concluded: “Somewhat impressive, also, is Wadsworth’s use of [one] of Emily Dickinson’s favorite words, ‘diadem’, no less than thirty times” (Barbot, 1941).

Today, Barbot would have to conclude: “Somewhat impressive, also, is Dickinson’s use of ‘Diadem’, one of Wadsworth’s favorite words, no less than 14 times in six years of poetry, 1861-1866. He used the word approximately 56 times in 33 years of ministry”.

As always, evidence of Wadsworth’s influence on ED is circumstantial, but 1861-1866 is exactly the period of ED’s manic turmoil. During those six years ED wrote 947 poems, well over half of her 36-year career total. It is worth noting that Wadsworth and family set sail from New York Harbor on May 1, 1862, bound for San Francisco, where they lived for nine years.

ED thought she was never going to see Reverend Charles Wadsworth again. Her 14th and last “Diadem” poem (F1121, 1866), bids him an angry but sad sayonara:

“The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean.
A Travelling Flake of Snow
Across a Barn or through a Rut
Debates if it will go —

A Narrow Wind complains all Day
How some one treated him
Nature, like Us is sometimes caught
Without her Diadem”

The word “him” is a gender switch, one of ED’s favorite camouflage tricks.

When Charles Wadsworth died in 1882, ED sent his best friend, James Clark, Letter 994, containing this sentence: “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.” (L994 to James D. Clark, August 22, 1882).

She was wrong about never seeing him again. In summer 1880 he showed up unexpectedly at her front door, but that’s another story.

 

ED’s 14 “Diadem” poems  (Franklin Number, Franklin Year, Title):

  1. F124, 1861, Safe in their Alabaster Chambers
  2. F246, 1861, The Sun – just touched the Morning
  3. F248, 1861, One life of so much consequence!
  4. F253, 1861, I’m ceded – I’ve stopped being Theirs’s –
  5. F254, 1861, A Mien to move a Queen –
  6. F267, 1861, Rearrange a “Wife’s” Affection!
  7. F385, 1862, I’ll clutch – and clutch –
  8. F418, 1863, Your Riches – taught me – Poverty.
  9. F481, 1863, Fame of Myself, to justify,
  10. F553, 1863, When Diamonds are a Legend,
  11. F597, 1863, ‘Tis little I – could care for Pearls –
  12. F600, 1863, Her – last Poems –
  13. F613, 1863, Were dull for Diadem –
  14. F1121, 1866, The Sky is low – the Clouds are mean.

 

  1. Barbot, Mary E. 1941. Emily Dickinson Parallels. The New England Quarterly. 14(4): 689-696.
  2. Franklin, R.W. 1999. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition. 1040 pp.

612.1863.’Tis Opposites — Entice —

612.1863.’Tis Opposites — Entice —

‘Tis Opposites — Entice —
Deformed Men — ponder Grace —
Bright fires — the Blanketless —
The Lost — Day’s face —

The Blind — esteem it be
Enough Estate — to see —
The Captive — strangles new —
For deeming — Beggars — play —

To lack — enamor Thee —
Tho’ the Divinity —
Be only
Me —

 

Line 1’s clichéd proposition (opposites attract) suggests Stanza 3’s “Thee” and “Me” could contrast prosaic with poetic personalities. However, Line 10’s capitalized “Divinity” brings to mind a conservative Christian preacher, “Thee” (Wadsworth), and a non-believing “Me” (ED), polar opposites regarding Christian “Fiction” (previous poem, F611).

Stanza 3 consists of four visually and numerically shortening lines of 4, 3, 2, 1 words with all lines perfect rhymes: “Thee”, “Divinity”, “only”, “Me”. Dazzling pyrotechnics, no?

I suspect ED’s skeptical search for life’s meaning, expressed in her pre-1860 letters to Wadsworth, is what “Enticed”/“Enamored” him to visit her at ‘Homestead’ in summer 1860.