ED’s alternate words (L2, L12) and alternate phrase are in parentheses (L8).
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 — (Of it’s [sic] Condensed Despatch [sic])
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 late 1863”.
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 Dispatch)
Remorse is cureless — the Disease
Not even God — can heal —
For ’tis His institution — and
The (Complement) of Hell —
Definitions from ‘ED Lexicon’ (EDL):
• Parties (L2) Opposing sides in a dispute
• Lighted (L6) Illuminated (my inference, not in EDL)
• Condensed (L8) Collected; settled; gathered
• Despatch (L8) Riddance, clearance, disposal (noun)
• Complement (L12) Equal; equivalent
F781, ‘Remorse — is Memory — awake —’, 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.
And/or, ED’s remorse may stem from the unwise break-up letter she sent Susan Gilbert (Dickinson) in 1854. Sue Gilbert and Austin Dickinson announced their engagement in March 1853 After her engagement, Sue naturally shifted her attention from ED to Austin, leading ED to pen an unwise breakup letter on August 1, 1854 (JL173):
“Sue – you can go or stay – There is but one alternative – We differ often lately, and this must be the last.
…………………………
We have walked very pleasantly – Perhaps this is the point at which our paths diverge – then [I] pass on singing Sue, and up the distant hill I journey on.”
ED’s remorse on losing Sue’s sister-like intimacy and Wadsworth’s father-like friendship lasted her lifetime.
We don’t know what ED’s assumptions were about Wadsworth’s reason for leaving the east coast, but she reacted with poems ranging from blaming, to pleading, to forgiving, and, 17 years later, to inquiring how he was faring (Asterisks indicate poems that include ED’s codename for Wadsworth, “Calvary”):
• Blaming (‘Take your Heaven further on —’, F672, second half of 1862,),
• Pleading (‘A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!’, F673, second half 1863),
• Forgiving (‘That I always did love’, F652, second half 1863)*; (‘Tis true – They shut me in the Cold’, F658, second half 1863),
• Inquiring (‘Spurn the temerity’, F1485, 1879)*.
Asterisks (*) indicate poems that include ED’s codename for Wadsworth, “Calvary”.
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 assumed he had simply abandoned her. She was wrong, hence the remorse expressed in this poem, and many others. For a fuller explanation of the biographical history between ED and Wadsworth, see comments on ‘ED-LarryB’ blog:
Biographic History of ED and Reverend Charles Wadsworth