Year: 2025

The sweetest Heresy received
That Man and Woman know –
Each Other’s Convert –
Though the Faith accommodate but Two –

The Churches are so frequent –
The Ritual – so small –
The Grace so unavoidable –
To fail – is Infidel –

ED Lexicon defines “Convert” (Line 3) and “Infidel” (Line 8), respectively, as metaphors for “Lover” and “Shameful”.

This poem is about an archtypic Christian True Believer and an archtypic Agnostic who agreed to disagree.

That spark of tension lit the fire of a friendship that lasted their lifetimes. Their marriage of minds was “The sweetest Heresy” that “Man and Woman know”. In August 1882, four months after the Christian died and four years before the Agnostic descended in a white coffin that symbolized her faithfulness to their marriage and to her poetry, ED could honestly say of Reverend Charles Wadsworth:

“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, August 22, 1882, from ED to James D. Clark, Wadsworth’s best friend).

Never underestimate ED. (Comments on Fr 671,TPB, June 24-27, 2025)

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)

 

 

That I did always love
I bring thee Proof
That till I loved
I never lived — Enough —

That I shall love alway —
I argue thee
That love is life —
And life hath Immortality —

This — dost thou doubt —
Then have I
Nothing to show
But Calvary —

Except for one word, F652 invites literal interpretation. Each line below is one stanza , with editorial comments [in brackets]:

1. That I did always love[,] I bring thee Proof[.] Until I loved[,] I never lived enough[.]
2. That I shall love alway[s,] I argue thee[,] that love is life[,] and life hath immortality[.]
3. [If] this dost thou doubt[,] then have I nothing to show [for my life] but Calvary.

Stanzas 1 & 2 sound Shakespearean to me. Stanza 3 is pure Dickinson.

In the twelve ED poems that use the word “Calvary” (listed below), she intends at least two metaphoric and two literal meanings:

1. Metaphorically, “Calvary” is  (1)  a codeword for Reverend Charles Wadsworth and (2) excruciating pain.
2. Literally, it’s (1) the hill in Jerusalem where Romans crucified Jesus and (2) the name of Calvary Presbyterian, the church in San Francisco where Wadsworth preached from 1862-1869.

In this poem, F652, I think ED intends all four meanings. Explaining that requires some biographic history:

Biographic History of ED and Reverend Charles Wadsworth

While visiting a friend in Philadelphia in March1855, ED, age 24, heard Rev. Wadsworth deliver a sermon at his church, Arch Street Presbyterian. Apparently, Wadsworth’s sermon, and his deep voice, lit an emotional and intellectual fire in ED that resulted in a two-way correspondence and an 1860 visit by Wadsworth to her home in Amherst. That sermon, their correspondence, and his visit may help explain ED’s manic burst of productivity during the next five years, 1861-1865: a total of 937 poems, more than half her oeuvre of 1789 poems in 37 years of composition, 1850-1886.

Before ED’s death in 1886, she asked her sister, Vinnie, to burn all her correspondence. Vinnie complied except for one undated letter from Wadsworth to ED and three drafts of letters from ED to “Master”. His letter to her probably predates his first visit to Amherst because he misspells her name in its salutation and his stationary bears a monogram he stopped using in 1862:

“My Dear Miss Dickenson —

I am distressed beyond measure at your note, received this moment, — I can only imagine the affliction which has befallen, or is now befalling you.

Believe me, be what it may, you have all my sympathy, and my constant, earnest prayers.

I am very, very anxious to learn more definitely of your trial — and though I have no right to intrude upon your sorrow yet I beg you to write me, though it be but a word.

In great haste
Sincerely and most
Affectionately Yours —”

Wadsworth underlined the word, “Yours”, but did not sign the letter.

The tone of his letter is sincere ministerial concern for her, but given ED ‘s attraction to him, how did she interpret that underlined “Yours”? Why Wadsworth suddenly resigned his Philadelphia position in early 1862 and moved to San Francisco and how that personally affected ED’s life begs explanation.

Wadsworth’s charismatic sermons had filled Arch Street Presbyterian pews since his arrival in 1850, but his belief that the Bible condoned slavery did not sit well with his mostly anti-slavery congregation. When the Civil War began in April 1861, Wadsworth stood firmly for preserving the United States as one nation and thus sided with the Union in his sermons, but that didn’t satisfy his anti-slavery congregation. Friction followed, and he resigned his position at Arch Street Presbyterian in early 1862.

Simultaneously, in San Francisco, the struggling congregation of the 10-year-old Calvary Presbyterian Church grew increasingly dissatisfied with their Reverend William Scott, who supported both slavery and secession of slave states in his sermons. Threats followed. Scott resigned in July 1871 and sailed to Birmingham, England where he pastored John Street Presbyterian Church for two years.

Scott had known Wadsworth in seminary, and “After resigning in July 1861, Scott may have asked his friend to consider a call from Calvary Church as his successor; their friendship probably contributed to Wadsworth’s being chosen to replace Scott at a meeting of the congregation on 9 December 1861.” (Lease 1990). Wadsworth accepted, resigned from Arch Street Presbyterian, and moved to San Francisco in May 1862.

Apparently, in September 1861 ED learned of Wadsworth’s impending decision to move and felt terror of abandonment, which may explain her cryptic comment to Higginson in a letter dated April 28, 1862: “I had a terror – since September – I could tell to none – and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground, because I am afraid”. At that time, ED apparently knew nothing about the real reason why Wadsworth decided to leave the east coast. (Johnson letter J-L261, Miller and Mitchell letter M&M-L338)

In her last “Calvary” poem (F1485, 1879), ED affirmed her enduring concern and now platonic love for Wadsworth in a quatrain, ‘Spurn the temerity’:

Spurn the temerity –
Rashness of Calvary –
Gay were Gethsemane
Knew we of thee –

ED Lexicon defines “Gethsemane” metaphorically as “Scene of agony; circumstance of unimaginable pain; situation of extreme anguish”, which pretty well describes ED’s mental state during 1861-1863 and perhaps longer.

If “Calvary” codes for Wadsworth and “Gethsemane” for ED, F1479 translates line by line:

“Ignore my brash boldness,
My rashness when you accepted pastorship of Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco.
I would be gay now
If I knew how you are doing.”

It would not surprise me if she mailed this poem, F1485, to Wadsworth in 1879, though we have no hard evidence that happened. At any rate, the next year, during summer 1880, he showed up unannounced at her front door.

Wadsworth died two years later, on April 1, 1882. In August 1882 ED wrote his best friend, James Clark, asking for memories of him (L994). By pure chance, ED’s father had introduced her to James in 1859. He and his brother, Charles, lived during summers at the Clark family home in Northampton, MA, 12 miles southwest of Amherst.

Her letter speaks for itself:

“August 1882

Dear friend,

Please excuse the trespass of gratitude. My Sister [Vinnie] thinks you will accept a few words in recognition of your great kindness.

In a [sic] intimacy of many years with the beloved Clergyman, I have never before spoken with one who knew him, and his Life was so shy and his tastes so unknown, that grief for him seems almost unshared.

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. [Actually, ED was 24 when she attended his sermon, March 1855]

I saw him two years since [summer 1880] for the last time, though how unsuspected!

He rang one summer evening to my glad surprise – “Why did you not tell me you were coming, so I could have it to hope for,” I said – “Because I did not know it myself. I stepped from my Pulpit to the Train,” was his quiet reply. . . . . . He [had] spoken on a previous visit [1860] of calling upon you [James Clark], or perhaps remaining a brief time at your Home in Northampton. . . . . . . .

E Dickinson.”

James Clark died in 1883. Two years later in mid-April 1886, four weeks before her own death, ED wrote Clark’s brother, Charles, describing Wadsworth’s 1880 visit with her in Amherst (Johnson letter L1040, Miller and Mitchell letter, L1298):

“Thank you [for a previous letter], Dear friend, I am better. The velocity of the ill, however, is like that of the snail. . . . . .

I could hardly have thought it possible that the scholarly Stranger [James Clark] to whom my Father introduced me [in 1859] could have mentioned my Friend [Charles Wadsworth] . . . . .

With the exception of my Sister [Vinnie] who never saw Mr Wadsworth, your Name alone [now] remains.

Going Home” [dying], was he not an Aborigine of the sky? The last time he came in Life [summer 1880], I was with my Lilies and Heliotropes, said my sister to me, “[T]he 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.

“I stepped from my Pulpit to the Train” was [his] simple reply, and when I asked “how long,” “Twenty Years” [1860-1880] said he with inscrutable roguery – but [his] loved Voice has ceased, and to someone who [heard] him “Going Home,” it was sweet to speak. . . . . . Excuse me for the [my] Voice, this moment immortal. . . . .”

E Dickinson.”

1. Johnson, T.H. 1958. The Letters of Emily Dickinson
2. Lease, Benjamin, 1990, Emily Dickinson’s Readings of Men and Books
3. Miller, Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell, 2024, The Letters of Emily Dickinson

 

During her lifetime ED composed 12 “Calvary” poems:

“Calvary” Poems

Year      Fr#         “Calvary” lines
1861     194        Empress of Calvary
1862     283        The Palm -without the Calvary –
1862     325        Justified-through Calvaries of Love-
1862     347        The Queen of Calvary-
1862     398        Key of Calvary-
1862     431        In Calvary-
1863     550        In passing Calvary-
1863     652        But Calvary
1863     670        One Calvary-exhibited to Stranger
1863     686        For passing Calvary-
1863     749        Cashmere-or Calvary-the same
1879    1485       Rashness of Calvary-

Summary of Calvary poem occurrences:

Years               Time (yrs)      Poems        F#s
1850-1860             11               0              F1-F193
1861-1863              3              11             F194-F7491
1864-1978            15               0              F750-F1485
1879                        1               1              F779
1880-1886              7               0              F1486-F1789

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.

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.

646.1863.’Tis One by One — the Father counts —
ED offered no alternative words in this poem.

‘Tis One by One — the Father counts —
And then a Tract between
Set Cypherless — to teach the Eye
The Value of its Ten —

Until the peevish Student
Acquire the Quick of Skill —
Then Numerals are dowered back —
Adorning all the Rule —

‘Tis mostly Slate and Pencil —
And Darkness on the School
Distracts the Children’s fingers —
Still the Eternal Rule

Regards least Cypherer alike
With Leader of the Band —
And every separate Urchin’s Sum —
Is fashioned for (fitted to) his hand —

I love ED’s effortless enjambment of Lines 8-9, “Still the Eternal Rule // Regards least Cypherer alike”

The OED definition of “cyphering” is “To use the Arabic numerals in the processes of arithmetic; to work the elementary rules of arithmetic; now chiefly a term of elementary education.”

Perhaps, at a literal level, the poem is about young students learning the rules of arithmetic, but ED always has metaphorical meanings in mind. She copied F646 into Fascicle 31 “about the second half of 1863” as a brutal war darkened the land. Could ED’s message be:

“Still the Eternal Rule [Democracy] regards least Cypherer [person] alike with Leader of the Band [Leading Citizen]. ‘Tis One [vote] by One [vote] the Father [President Lincoln].”

Or, given ED’s obsession with death and resurrection, her meaning might be:

“Still the Eternal Rule [Golden Rule] regards least Cypherer [Believer] alike with Leader of the Band [Pastor]. ‘Tis One [Soul] by One [Soul] the Father [God] counts.”

Feeble metaphors, I know, but it’s hard to imagine ED wrote a poem only about “least urchin” learning to “cypher” Maybe she was trying to impress Sue, a former mathematics teacher.