Year: 2025

ED’s alternate words in parentheses:

Have any like Myself
Investigating March,
New Houses on the Hill descried—
And possibly a Church—

That were not, We are sure—
As lately as the Snow—
And are Today—if We exist—
Though how may this be so?

Have any like Myself
Conjectured Who may be
The Occupants of the Adobes—
So easy to the Sky—

Twould seem that God should be
The nearest Neighbor to—
And Heaven—a convenient Grace
For Show, or Company—

Have any like Myself
Preserved the Charm secure (Vision sure, Vision clear)
By shunning carefully the Place (Spot, Site)
All Seasons of the Year,

Excepting March—’Tis then
My (The) Villages be seen—
And possibly a Steeple—
Not afterward—by Men—

In Line 13, ED omitted the contracting apostrophe of “‘Twould”, which is not her usual practice (Fr574). Both Johnson (1955) and Franklin (1998) emend her omission, which seems reasonable to me. In Line 18, I prefer ED’s alternative “Vision clear” over “Charm secure” because it emphasizes that ED realizes the “Villages” are a “Vision”, not real. In Line 19, I prefer “Spot” over “Place” because of its alliteration with “shunning” and the firm sound of the final “t”. In Line 22, I like the possessiveness of “My” better than the alternative “The”.

In New England March, bright blue skies and puffy white clouds occasionally break the dreariness of winter. It’s hard to resist a walk on such a day, and if a poet feels her imagination stirring, she could easily see houses and a steeple in the clouds behind a hill’s horizon. Return tomorrow, it’s likely gone, “Not [seen] afterward – by Men –”.

Stanzas 1-3 describe this mystical village and conjecture who lives there. Her first two lines of Stanza 4 (L9-10) guess that God should live there because the village lies between Earth and Heaven.

Then, suddenly, Lines L11-L12 slam a question in our face. Is “Heaven – a convenient Grace / For Show, or Company?” What happened to the village in the sky with new houses and a steepled church? That question about Heaven sure seems skeptical and even sarcastic to me.

A village that appears once a century is an old German motif, most recently revisited in Brigadoon (1947 musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe). Brigadoon’s precursor, ‘Germelshausen’ is an 1860 German story by Friedrich Gerstäcker about a young artist being forever separated from his love, but the motif predates 1860.

“A cursed village that sank into the earth long ago is permitted to appear for only one day every century. The protagonist happens to be traversing the area as Germelshausen appears. He encounters, and becomes smitten with, a young woman from the village. The romantic tale ends with him leaving the vicinity just in time to avoid becoming entombed with the village and its denizens, but thereby he loses the love of his life.”

ED’s village appears once a year, but the result is the same, gender reversed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germelshausen

ED’s alternate words in parentheses:

Upon Concluded Lives
There’s nothing cooler falls –
Than Life’s sweet (new) Calculations
The mixing Bells and Palls –

Make Lacerating Tune—
To Ears the Dying Side—
‘Tis Coronal—and Funeral—
Saluting (confronting, contrasting) —in the Road—

In both alternative-word cases, I prefer the published words, “sweet” and “saluting”.

EDLex’s definition of “coronal” is triptych: (1) “Crown; gold circlet; royal headpiece”, (2) “coronation; ceremony of crowning; endowment of a royal status”, and (3) “[metaphor] resurrection; sanctification.”

This poem deals with ED’s dueling feelings, her love of this Earth’s “Nature” and her dreams of Heaven’s supernatural “Queen of Calvary” crown, specifically, her heavenly title, “Mrs. Wadsworth”:

• ‘Title divine, is mine’ (F194),
• ‘Rearrange a “Wife’s” Affection!’ (F267),
• ‘There came a Day—at Summer’s full’ (F325),
• ‘He touched me, so I live to know’ (F349),
• ‘I know that He exists’ (F365),
• ‘Ourselves were wed one summer — dear —’ (F596).

 

To the dying person, the two stanzas enjamb painfully:

“The mixing Bells and Palls – //
Make Lacerating Tune—
To Ears the Dying Side—”

but,

“To Ears the Dying Side—
‘Tis Coronal—and Funeral—
Saluting—in the Road—”

The competing desires salute, like two passing ships,

ED has been here before:

“So—faces on two Decks—look back—
Bound to opposing Lands—” (F325, 1862)

In eight short lines ED paints her ambivalent feelings about death, the pain of leaving life, particularly nature, and the joy of entering heaven, “if true”.

“Nature” is what We see—
The Hill—the Afternoon—
Squirrel—Eclipse—the Bumble bee—
Nay—Nature is Heaven—

“Nature” is what We hear—
The Bobolink—the Sea—
Thunder—the Cricket—
Nay—Nature is Harmony—

“Nature” is what We know—
But have no art to say—
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To Her Sincerity—

In F721, ED returns to “the Conscious Ear” of F718 and, for good measure, adds the Conscious Eye. Once again, in F721, she distinguishes between natural and supernatural. Natural nature is tangible things we see, “The Hill – the Afternoon – / Squirrel – Eclipse – the Bumble bee”, and hear, “The Bobolink – the Sea – / Thunder – the Cricket –”.

But is that all “Nature is”? “Nay”, she firmly injects:

“Nature is Heaven” //
“Nature is Harmony” //
“Nature is what We know / But have no Art to say –”.

Spiritual Nature is inexplicable, “So impotent our Wisdom is / To Her Sincerity”. Just as any honest scientist will tell us, “Humans can never know exactly what is true in nature; we can only approximate truth”, likewise, ED says, “I have no Art to say” exactly what Nature is, only that it is “Heaven”, it is “Harmony”, it is “Melody” that can only be heard and seen with the “Conscious Ear” and Eye. Neither scientists nor ED can explain why some people hear the music of the spheres (Wikipedia, 2024), “the spirit ditties of no tone” (Keats, 1819), “The Singing Wilderness” (Olson, 1961).

Shakespeare’s Lorenzo tells Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, that only immortal souls can hear the music of the spheres:

“Such harmony is in immortal souls,
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”

ED would disagree; she heard the “Harmony”, “But have no Art to say -”. Nor did Shakespeare, Keats, or Olson “have . . . art to say”.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musica_universalis
• Shakespeare, 1598, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Act 5, Scene 1
• John Keats, 1819 ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’
• Sigurd F. Olson, 1961, ‘The Singing Wilderness’

As if the Sea should part
And show a further Sea —
And that — a further — and the Three
But a presumption be —

Of Periods of Seas —
Unvisited of Shores —
Themselves the Verge of Seas to be —
Eternity — is Those —

Hmmm. In addition to her poetry, ED had the mindset of a scientist. Before she wrote poetry, she collected plant species, accurately identified them, and mounted them on herbarium sheets as professionally as any botanist of her time. More importantly, she questioned dogma and demanded evidence of untested hypotheses like resurrection and heaven. And most importantly, she was a skeptic but kept her mind open to new evidence.

In 1863, when she composed this poem, there were two wars raging, the American Civil War and a Religion/Science War in England and America. Lyell (1830) and Darwin (1859), among others, had challenged Christianity’s dogma of Creation, including how and when it happened. As one might suspect, ED kept a close eye on both wars, avidly reading Bowles’ highly regarded newspaper, ‘The Springfield Republican’, along with ‘The Hampshire and Franklin Express’, and ‘The Amherst Record’. In addition, the Dickinson family subscribed to ‘Harper’s New Monthly Magazine’, ‘Scribner’s Monthly’, and ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ (Capps 1966).

In the poem’s last line, she tries to merge Science and Religion.

An interpretation of ‘As if the Sea should part’ (F720) by a scientist:

Stanza 1 – “To me [ED] the sea seems permanent, but science opened willing eyes, including mine, to possibilities of sea after sea after sea in Earth’s history, but that would be a presumption [hypothesis]”

Stanza 2 – “Those periods of seas – / Unvisited by shores – / Themselves the Verge of Seas to be – / Eternity – is Those –”.

• Charles Lyell, 1830, Principles of Geology,;
• Charles Darwin, 1859, On the Origin of Species
• Capps, J. L., 1966, ‘Emily Dickinson’s Reading’, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 143 pp.

PS. Hooray! Another ED poem without mention of Charles Wadsworth.

In the July and August 1860 issues of The Atlantic Monthly, Harvard’s Asa Gray, the leading botanist in the United States, published an 11,000-word positive review of Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’. Darwin reprinted Gray’s essay as a pamphlet in England.

In the October 1860 issue of The Atlantic, Gray published a , 12,000-word essay countering negative reviews of Darwin’s book, including Louis Agassiz’s. 1859. Essay on Classification (London: Longman). 381 pp.

The Atlantic Monthly was “required reading” in the Dickinson household.

• Juliana Chow. 2014. “Because I see—New Englandly—”: Seeing Species in the Nineteenth-Century and Emily Dickinson’s Regional Specificity. ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance, 60(3): 413-449.

• Asa Gray. 1860. “Darwin on the Origin of Species” and “Darwin and His Reviewers”. The Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 6 Nos. 33, 34, 36.

If He were living—dare I ask—
And how if He be dead—
And so around the Words I went—
Of meeting them—afraid—

I hinted Changes—Lapse of Time—
The Surfaces of Years—
I touched with Caution—lest they crack—
And show me to my fears—

Reverted to adjoining Lives—
Adroitly turning out
Wherever I suspected Graves—
‘Twas prudenter—I thought—

And He—I pushed—with sudden force—
In face of the Suspense—
“Was buried”—”Buried”! “He!”
My Life just holds the Trench—

Scenario – ED has written letters and composed poems and mailed them to Charles Wadsworth in San Francisco but has heard nothing in reply. Her anger and her love collide – and love wins.

Stanza 1 – I imagine the worst: CW has died in San Francisco. Words fail me; I’m afraid.

Stanza 2 – I wrote him anyway, trying to be strong. “I hinted Changes” that have happened for me: “Lapse of Time”, old wounds healed; years have come and gone. I touched these topics cautiously, “lest they crack” [I learn the truth] – “And show me to my [worst] fears”.

Stanza 3 – In case he or a member of his family has died, “’Twas prudenter – I thought –” / “Reverted to adjoining [nearby] Lives – / Adroitly turning out”

Stanza 4 – “And He I pushed with sudden force / In face of the Suspense [my fear] / [that He] “Was buried” – “Buried”! “He!” / [If He is dead,] My Life holds the [his burial] Trench.”

The phrase, “adjoining Lives”, in Stanza 3 probably refers to “James D. Clark, perhaps Wadsworth’s closest friend” who lived in Northampton, MA, 12 miles southwest of Amherst (Thompson 2018). The Belchertown Railroad connected the two towns in 1853.

By pure coincidence, ED’s father had had business dealings with James D. Clark and had introduced ED to him at Homestead. Whatever the purpose of Clark’s call, it must have taken place between 1858 and 1863” (Habegger 2002).

“One of the poet’s memorable encounters occurred when James [D. Clark] . . . showed up at the Dickinson mansion: “I could scarcely have believed, the Morning you called with Mr Brownell,” she wrote some two decades later [L1048, To James D. Clark, Mar 15, 1883], “that I should eventually speak with you, and you only, with the exception of my Sister, of my dearest earthly friend [Wadsworth].” (Habegger 2002)

• (Thompson, Casey.2018, https://waynepres.org/article/the-story-of-emily-dickinson-and-rev-charles-wadsworth).

Franklin’s (1998) punctuation and ED’s alternate words in parentheses:

The Spirit is the Conscious Ear —
We actually Hear
When We inspect—that’s audible—
That is admitted—Here—

For other Services (purposes)—as Sound —
There hangs a smaller (minor) Ear
Outside the Castle (Centre, City) —that Contain (Present)—
The other —only—Hear—

Here’s my interpretation, using ED’s alternate words when they help and my clarifications in brackets. Lines 1-3 are enjambed into a single sentence, and Line 4 is a single sentence. Lines 5-7 are also enjambed into a single sentence, and Line 8 is a closing sentence.

The Spirit is the Conscious Ear
We actually Hear
When We inspect [what’s] audible— [in our soul].
That [song] is admitted—Here—[in the Conscious Ear].

For other Purposes—such as Sound [physical sounds such as bird songs]—
There hangs a minor Ear, [the physical ear]
Outside the Castle [of our soul, which] Contain[s] the [Conscious Ear].
The other [the minor ear] only Hear[s] [physical sounds].

In a footnote to this poem, Christine Miller (2016, ‘Emily Dickinson’s Poems’) refers readers to ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ (John Keats, 1819, Stanza 2):

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone”

Given ED’s interest in “the spirit ditties of no tone”, that is, mystical experiences, her “Conscious Ear” is the one that hears God speaking, the “Ear” Saul used to listen to God on the road to Damascus (KJV, Acts 9:3-5):

3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. . .”

It would be hard for any poet, including ED, to improve on Keats. To me, ED’s “Ear” / “Hear” / “Here” // “Ear” / “Hear” sound clunky compared to Keats’ “Heard”, “unheard” // “ear”, “endear’d”.

The Heaven vests for Each
In that small Deity
It craved the grace to worship
Some bashful Summer’s Day –

Half shrinking from the Glory
It importuned to see
Till these faint Tabernacles drop
In full Eternity –

How imminent the Venture –
As One should sue a Star –
For His mean sake to leave the Row
And entertain Despair –

A Clemency so common –
We almost cease to fear –
Enabling the minutest –
And furthest – to adore –

As ED was often wont to do, ‘The Heaven vests for Each’ (F717, Line 3, late 1863) serves us a disguised pronoun, “it”. Normally, “it” refers to something inanimate, like Heaven, or non-human, like a dog, but not in this poem. ED was a private person, and in this poem she used the neuter gender because the poem is about her.

“It” refers to “Each” (in this poem, ED) and for her, “that small Deity” was Charles Wadsworth (CW). ED recalls the “Glory” she felt on a “bashful Summer’s Day”, which she immortalized in ‘There came a Day—at Summer’s full’ (F325, 1862). On that day, she and CW exchanged crucifixes and pledged (Stanza 7):

“Sufficient troth—that we shall rise—
Deposed—at length—the Grave—
To that new Marriage—
Justified—through Calvaries of Love!”

An interpretation of ‘The Heaven vests for Each’, in poem-prose [brackets mine]:

Stanza 1 – “Some bashful Summer’s Day” / “Heaven vests [invests] for Each [woman; ED] / In that small Deity” [man; CW] / It [she; ED] craved the grace to worship”.

Stanza 2 – “Half shrinking from the Glory [CW] / It [ED] importuned [begged] to see / Till [When] these faint Tabernacles [frail bodies] drop / In full Eternity [Heaven]”.

Stanza 3 – “How imminent [soon] the Venture [Death] / As [if] One should sue [ask] a Star [CW] / For His mean sake to leave the Row [of Stars] / And entertain Despair [like ED’s]”

Stanza 4 – “A Clemency [forgiveness] so common / We [humans; ED] almost cease to fear / Enabling the minutest / And furthest [of us; ED] – to adore [our lover; CW]”

The “Row” of “Stars” in Lines 10-11 may refer to Stanza 1 of ‘I lost a World – the other day!’, F209 (1861) [brackets mine] and perhaps originally to Revelation 12:1-5, ED’s favorite Book in the Bible:

“I lost a World [CW] – the other day!
Has Anybody found?
You’ll know it [Him] by the Row of Stars
Around its [His] forehead bound.”

Revelation 12:1-5:

1And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

The “woman clothed with the sun” and “crown of stars” was traditionally believed to be the Virgin Mary
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Apocalypse), but in ED’s current missing-him mood, the “Crown of Stars” is Charles Wadsworth.