886.1864.Bereaved of all, I went abroad –

Bereaved of all, I went abroad –
No less bereaved was I
Opon a New Peninsula –
The Grave preceded me –

Obtained my Lodgings, ere myself
And when I sought my Bed –
The Grave it was reposed opon
The Pillow for my Head –

I waked, to find it first awake –
I rose – It followed me –
I tried to drop it in the Crowd –
To lose it in the Sea –

In Cups of artificial Drowse
To steep it’s shape away –
The Grave – was finished – but the Spade
Remained in Memory –
……………………………………………………………………………….

Interpretation of F886, ‘Bereaved of all, I went abroad -’

‘Grave’ personified:

Stanza 1.

Bereaved of all, I went abroad –
No less bereaved was I
Opon a New Peninsula –
The Grave preceded me – [. . . Stanzas 1 and 2 are enjambed]

S1.

Bereaved of all, I went abroad but was no less bereaved on a new peninsula because Grave preceded me. . .

Stanza 2.

Obtained my Lodgings, ere myself
And when I sought my Bed –
The Grave it was reposed opon
The Pillow for my Head –

S2>

. . . and obtained my lodgings before I arrived. And when I sought my bed, Grave was asleep on my pillow.

Stanza 3.

I waked, to find it first awake –
I rose – It followed me –
I tried to drop it in the Crowd –
To lose it in the Sea –

S3.

I waked, to find Grave first awaked; I rose, he followed me. I tried to escape Grave in the crowd, to lose him in the sea; . . . [Stanza 3 and 4 are enjambed]

Stanza 4

In Cups of artificial Drowse
To steep it’s shape away –
The Grave – was finished – but the Spade
Remained in Memory –

S4.

. . . I drank cups of laudanum to steep Grave’s shape away. That finished Grave, but Spade remained in memory.
………………………………………………………………………….

Combining my interpretation lines:

Bereaved of all, I went abroad but was no less bereaved on a new peninsula because Grave preceded me and obtained my lodgings before I arrived. And when I sought my bed, Grave was asleep on my pillow.

I waked, to find Grave first awaked; I rose, he followed me. I tried to escape Grave in the crowd, to lose him in the sea, I drank cups of laudanum to steep Grave’s shape away. That finished Grave, but Spade remained in memory.

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After commenting on Poems 1-763 (Franklin) on The Prowling Bee’, I am convinced that (virtually) all of Emily Dickinson’s (ED’s) poems have a factual historical level in addition to their various poetic levels of meaning. 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.

More than a century of scholarly research has resulted in somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 books and published academic papers about ED. A large majority of these publications focus only on the “poetic levels” of one or more of ED’s poems. Publications that consider both the “historic level” and “poetic levels” comprise a small minority. Publications that focus only on the factual history of her life probably number less than 100. (All numbers in this paragraph are my estimates.)

Unfortunately for ED’s universe of readers, these two basic levels (historical and poetic) cannot be separated into two ivory towers. Every history-level publication that I know of includes at least some discussion of the poetic level(s).

The reverse is not true. In fact, authors of the “poetry-level” school seem to avoid commenting on the historical level, sometimes admonishing that a poem must stand on its own, without concern for its historical roots. To my knowledge, there are (virtually) no published “history-level” books or articles that totally ignore ED’s poems and their poetic levels.

Of course, ED’s refusal to publish her poems was only possible because of lifelong financial and daily social/housekeeping support by her family, especially her father and sister, respectively. In addition, 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 of ED's poems can be enhanced by understanding both poetic and historical levels of her sound and sense. We impoverish ourselves if we ignore their historical base.