Year: 2026

818.1864.Given in Marriage unto Thee

Franklin (1998) tells us, “Manuscripts, two (one in part), about 1864 and 1865. The first stanza was sent to Susan Dickinson about 1864, written in pencil, signed ‘Emily’.”

One alternate word, in Line 7. I prefer ED’s original “Ring”:

Given in Marriage unto Thee
Oh thou Celestial Host —
Bride of the Father and the Son
Bride of the Holy Ghost —

Other Betrothal shall dissolve —
Wedlock of Will, decay —
Only the Keeper of this Ring (Seal)
Conquer Mortality —

EDLex defines “Celestial” (Line 2) as “Godly”.

My interpretation of F818, ‘Given in Marriage unto Thee’:

1. Given in marriage to you, Charles Wadsworth, “Celestial Host”, I became “Bride of the Father and the Son, Bride of the Holy Ghost”.

2. Any “Other Betrothal shall dissolve”, any “Other Wedlock of Will, decay” and “Only the Keeper of this Ring” shall “Conquer Mortality”.

I think ED was the “Keeper of this Ring”. She believed her poems would “Conquer Mortality”, and she was right.

ED’s four most intense years of spiritual feelings for Charles Wadsworth were 1861-1864, during which time she composed 708 poems, an average of one poem every two days. During her other 33 years of writing poetry, 1850-1860 and 1865-1886, she wrote 1171 poems, an average of one poem every 35 days. Doing the math, ED’s rate of poem production during 1861-1863 was eighteen times faster than during her other years of writing poetry.

Any other poet would die for a muse like Wadsworth. ED has been there, done that, and moved on to her life’s pledged purpose: composing poetry just for the sake of poetry.

…………………………………………………………..

ED’s oeuvre was 1879 poems. Of these, two included the word “Marriage”, this poem, ‘Given in Marriage unto Thee’ and Fr325, ‘There came a Day—at Summer’s full’. Stanzas 6-7 of Fr325 describe an earthly lover, probably Reverend Charles Wadsworth. He was 16 years older than ED, happily married, and had two children, which is why ED had to wait until they both had died and could meet in Heaven:

“And so when all the time had failed—
Without external sound—
Each—bound the other’s Crucifix—
We gave no other Bond—

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

ED used the word “Betrothal” or “Betrothed” in four poems, this one (F818) and three others:

1. Fr 194, ‘Title divine, is mine’, which is also a “Calvary” poem, ED’s codeword for Wadsworth. ED probably became “The Wife without the Sign” in 1860 when Wadsworth visited her at Homestead:“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”
2. Fr1412, ‘March is the Month of Expectation’, where “betrothal” concerns the month of March,
3. Fr1657, ‘Betrothed to Righteousness might be’, a delightful quatrain joking about “Righteousness”:“Betrothed to Righteousness might be
   An Ecstasy discreet
   But Nature relishes the Pinks
   Which she was taught to eat”

   ED used the word “Wedlock” in two poems, this one (F818) and Fr698, ‘I live with Him – I see His face’:

   “I live with Him — I see His face —
   I go no more away
   For Visitor — or Sundown —
   Death’s single privacy

   The Only One — forestalling Mine —
   And that — by Right that He
   Presents a Claim invisible —
   No wedlock — granted Me —

   I live with Him — I hear His Voice —
   I stand alive — Today —
   To witness to the Certainty
   Of Immortality —

   Taught Me — by Time — the lower Way —
   Conviction — Every day —
   That Life like This — is stopless —
   Be Judgment — what it may —”

   Line 1 of F698,  “I live with Him — I see His face “, echoes Master Letter 3’s focus on her Master’s face, and the capitalized “Him” of Line 9, I live with Him — I hear His Voice” could only refer to Wadsworth, not God, whom she certainly does not “live with”.

These shared words and their contexts are enough circumstantial evidence to compel me to conclude that F818 is about Charles Wadsworth, not Sue Dickinson.
………………………………………………………………………

In a happy way, Fr818 feels like an epitaph for ED’s four-year, spiritual love affair with Charles Wadsworth.

817.1864.This Consciousness that is aware

This Consciousness that is aware
Of Neighbors and the Sun
Will be the one aware of Death
And that itself alone

Is traversing the interval
Experience between
And most profound experiment
Appointed unto Men —

How adequate unto itself
Its properties shall be
Itself unto itself and none
Shall make discovery —

Adventure most unto itself
The Soul condemned to be —
Attended by a single Hound
Its own identity.

……………………………………………………

My interpretation of Fr817, ‘This Consciousness that is aware’:

1. This consciousness that is aware of neighbors and Sun will be the one aware of death, and that itself alone
2. is traversing the interval between the two, and that is the most profound experiment assigned to man.
3. How adequate unto consciousness its properties shall be, itself unto itself, and no one else shall make that discovery for it.
4. Adventure, most unto itself, the soul is condemned to be, attended by a single hound, its own identity.

And that, dear readers, is one profound bow to existentialist existence. Makes me wonder if she had been reading Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855):

“Existentialism is a 20th-century philosophical movement emphasizing individual freedom, responsibility, and subjectivity”. It posits that individuals are not born with a predetermined purpose but must construct their own meaning and values in an otherwise absurd, meaningless world. Key thinkers include Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus, focusing on themes like authenticity, angst, and the burden of choice”. (Google AI)

In 1914, Martha Dickinson Bianci, Sue’s daughter and ED’s niece published ‘A Single Hound, Poems of a Lifetime’, a collection of 142 unpublished poems. Here’s the last paragraph of her introduction:

“One may ask of the Sphinx [ED], if life would not have been dearer to her, lived as other women lived it? To have been, in essence, more as other women were? Or if, in so doing and so being, she would have missed that inordinate compulsion, that inquisitive comprehension that made her Emily Dickinson? It is to ask again the old riddle of genius against everyday happiness. Had life or love been able to dissuade her from that “eternal preoccupation with death” which thralled her–if she could have chosen–you urge, still unconvinced? But I feel that she could and did, and that nothing could have compensated her for the forfeit of that “single hound,” her “own Identity.”

ED lost schoolgirl friends to tuberculosis and typhus. In April 1844, when she was just thirteen, Emily’s second cousin and close friend, Sophia Holland, died of typhus. ED had been visiting Sophia daily and was in an adjoining room when Sophia died. ED insisted on saying goodbye to the corpse and Sophia’s mother unwisely said yes. The experience devastated ED, who went into deep depression for three months, only relieved by her parents sending her to Boston where her aunt took her sight-seeing to get her mind off her friend’s death.

Afterward, ED was fascinated by the moment of death, asking friends who were present at deathbeds whether they saw any evidence of a soul leaving as the person died. In the absence of evidence, she became skeptical of the “afterlife”. This poem, Fr 817, seems to posit a transition from life (“Neighbors”) to afterlife (“Sun”) via death (“traversing the interval”).

However, I suspect in the back of her mind ED halfway believed the transition was not from somewhere to somewhere, but rather from somewhere to nowhere. Why else would “The Soul condemned to be / Attended by . . . / Its own identity”?  Why did ED choose the verb “condemned” for a journey to Heaven?

“Adventure most unto itself
The Soul condemned to be —
Attended by a single Hound
Its own identity.”

Or did she expect life after death would be boring, which she stated as a fact in F710, ‘Doom is the House without the Door’? My guess is that ED used the verb “condemned” in ‘The Consciousness that is aware’ because she believed

“Doom is the House without the Door—
‘Tis entered from the Sun—
And then the Ladder’s thrown away,
Because Escape—is done—

‘Tis varied by the Dream
Of what they do outside—
Where Squirrels play—and Berries dye—
And Hemlocks—bow—to God—”

We know from the previous 816 poems that ED’s opinion of “God” varied widely from time to time.

816.1864.I could not drink it, Sweet

Two variants. I prefer Variant B with “Sweet” replaced by “Sue” and signed “Emily”.

I could not drink it, Sweet,
Till You had tasted first,
Though cooler than the Water was
The Thoughtfulness of Thirst.

 

My interpretation of ‘I could not drink it, Sweet’: (Fr816):

“I could not accept Christ, Sue, till you had done it first, though sweeter than Christ was your concern for my salvation.”

 

The coincidence of four words, “tasted” / “water” / “cooler” / “thirst”, in this 21-word quatrain and in one sentence of a letter ED wrote to her friend Abiah Root on March 28, 1846 (JL11) makes me wonder whether Fr816 is about ED’s spiritual salvation versus ED’s rejection of Christ as her soul’s savior, at least to Sue’s way of thinking.:

“Dearest Abiah,
· · · · ·
“I determined to devote my whole life to his service & desired that all might taste of the stream of living water from which I cooled my thirst.”
· · · · ·
Yours. Emily E. Dickinson –

 

Sue was a devout Christian and, during the 1880s, turned increasingly to the rituals of High Church (Anglo-Catholicism). She even considered becoming a Roman Catholic (Armand 1985).

During the 1880s, Sue spent almost every Sabbath for six years establishing a Sunday school in Logtown, a poor village in present-day Belchertown, not far from Amherst (Dorey 1960). Perhaps Sue was concerned about ED’s refusal to accept Christ as her savior and had offered to accompany ED to church.

This poem may be ED’s polite but firm RSVP.

 

Barton Levi St. Armand, 1985, Emily Dickinson and her Culture: the Soul’s Society, Cambridge Univ. Press, 368 pp.

Kenney A. Dorey, 1960, , Belchertown Town History, Dan Fitzpatrick (ed), 2005. 9 pp.

Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell, 2024, The Letters of Emily Dickinson, Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

810.1864. The Robin for the Crumb

The Robin for the Crumb
Returns no syllable
But long records the Lady’s name
In Silver Chronicle.

My interpretation:

The poet for the food returns no formal “thanks” but long records the giver’s name in silver poetry.

……………………………………

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 set the trope’s standard:

“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”

……………………………………

Franklin (1998) tells us there were two manuscripts of Fr810, “about 1864 and 1865”.

……………………………………….

While in the Boston area for eye treatment in 1864 and again in 1865, ED lived with her cousins, Frances and Louise Norcross, daughters of her mother’s oldest sister, at a boarding house located at 86 Austin Street in Cambridge. Her Aunt Lucretia Dickinson Bullard, eldest sister of ED’s father, lived at 24 Center Street in Cambridge, only 1.7 miles from ED’s boarding house. (Google AI)

During ED’s “eight weary months of Siberia”, AKA Cambridge and Boston, MA, for eye treatments, ED’s Aunt Lucretia must have sent her and her cousins a covered dish of food. Apparently, to thank her aunt, ED sent Fr810, ‘The Robin for the Crumb’. ED’s thank-you poem begins “Dear Aunt” and ends “Affy, Emily” (MML432, MML525). Occasionally, ED’s Aunt Bullard would also send bouquets of garden flowers and get-well cards.

794.1864.From Us She wandered now a Year

ED composed two variants of Fr794, Variant A in 1864 and Variant B in 1865. Variant A had eight lines in a single stanza. Variant B (1865) split the poem into two quatrains and used alternate words in Lines 5 and 8. I much prefer ED’s original Variant A:

From Us She wandered now a Year,
Her tarrying, unknown,
If Wilderness prevent her feet
Or that Ethereal Zone
No Man has seen and lived
We ignorant must be—
We only know what time of Year
We felt the Mystery.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function” (F. Scott Fitzgerald. February, 1936. ‘The Crack-Up’. Esquire magazine).

“Dickinson contrasts two possibilities for the deceased: the “Wilderness”, an earthly, physical state, and the “Ethereal Zone”, a supernatural or spiritual realm.” (Google AI).

EDLex defines “Wilderness” as “Emptiness; bleakness; desolation; hollowness”. It defines “Ethereal” as: “Heavenly; celestial; seraphic; of spirit; existing beyond mortality”.

An interpretation of Fr794, in a prose paragraph:

She died a year ago, but we don’t know where she’s lingering. We can’t know whether she’s stumbling in some wilderness or living in Heaven, which no mortal has seen or experienced. We only know that we felt mystified after she died.

PS. The word “Wilderness” brings to mind Luke 4: 1-2:

1. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

792.1863.So the Eyes accost—and sunder

Two alternate words in parentheses, both of which I prefer

So the Eyes accost—and sunder
In an Audience—
Stamped—occasionally (in instances)—forever—
So may (can) Countenance

Entertain—without addressing
Countenance of One
In a Neighboring Horizon—
Gone—as soon as known—

With apologies to Oscar Hammerstein (South Pacific, 1949):

“Some enchanted evening
You may see a stranger,
You may see a stranger
Across a crowded room
And somehow you know,
You know even then
That somewhere you’ll see her
Again and again.”

Maybe Hammerstein read ED’s poem, ya think?

Hammerstein is inimitable, but Adam DeGraff parses the poem well at The Prowling Bee:

“This encounter is, perhaps, just an anonymous passing-by on the street. Have you had that encounter with someone, a momentary connection, that feels somehow eternal?”

ED outdoes her typical obscurity in ‘Entertain—without addressing’. It helped to use the Emily Dickinson Lexington (EDL) for clues to her meaning, but when that failed, Oxford English Dictionary (OED) saved the day:

Stanza 1
Accost: meet
Sunder: separate
Audience: group of observers
Stamped: (OED) marked
Countenance: Other; Face

Stanza 2

 Entertain: Receive, welcome
Address: Speak to
Neighboring: Adjacent
Horizon: line that terminates the view when extended on the surface of the earth

ED enjambs Line 4 Stanza 1 and Line 5 Stanza 2. The poem’s first editors, Bianci and Hampson (1929, ‘Further Poems’), published the two-quatrain poem as a single eight-line stanza, which makes sense to me.

An enjambed interpretation of ‘So the Eyes accost—and sunder’:

So the Eyes meet — and separate
In a Group of onlookers —
Eyes marked empathic — in instances — forever —.
“So” — “One” Face may

Welcome — without speaking to —
Another Face — Someone empathic —
In a “Neighboring” Universe —
Gone — as soon as known —

For ED, I think that empathic someone was Reverend Charles Wadsworth, who has “Gone” so “soon” to San Francisco, a “Neighboring” but unseen Universe from hers.

791.1863.My Worthiness is all my Doubt —

ED’s alternate words & “Opon” for “Upon” in parentheses

My Worthiness is all my Doubt —
His Merit — all my fear —
Contrasting which, my quality
Do lowlier — appear —

Lest I should insufficient prove (be)
For His beloved Need —
The Chiefest Apprehension
Upon (Opon) my thronging (crowded; happy) Mind —

Tis true — that Deity to stoop
Inherently incline —
For nothing higher than Itself
Itself can rest (lift -; base -) upon —

So I — the undivine abode
Of His Elect Content —
Conform my Soul — as ’twere a Church,
Unto Her Sacrament —

 

Why would ED’s editors suddenly start correcting her delightful misspelling, “Opon” (Line 8), when they have given it a pass in all poems before this one? Given the arbitrary whims of editors, it’s no wonder ED refused to publish her poems.

Stanza 1

I think “His” refers to Reverend Charles Wadsworth: ED’s “fear[s]” that her mental “quality” “Do lowlier – appear” than “His”. ED even admits that her mind could actually “be” “lesser” than Wadsworth’s (“be” is ED’s alternate last word of Line 5). But elsewhere ED claims her mind is equal to any man’s (F301 and F445):

F301, ‘One Year ago—jots what?’, Lines 17-24:

“You said it hurt you—most—
Mine—was an Acorn’s Breast—
And could not know how fondness grew
In Shaggier Vest—
Perhaps—I couldn’t—
But, had you looked in—
A Giant—eye to eye with you, had been—
No Acorn—then—”

F445, ‘They shut me up in Prose —’:

“They shut me up in Prose —
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet —
Because they liked me “still” —

“Still! Could themself have peeped —
And seen my Brain – go round –
They night as wise have lodged a Bird
For Treason – in the Pound –

“Himself has but to will
And easy as a Star
Abolish his Captivity —
And laugh — No more have I —”

I think the reason ED uses the word “appear” in F791 is that she knows she a genius equal to or superior to any male. In this regard, it may be worth noting that Lines 1 and 2 are parallel construction:

“My Worthiness is all my Doubt —
His Merit [is]— all my fear —”.

Stanza 2

OED defines “lest” as “A negative particle of intention or purpose, introducing a clause expressing something to be prevented or guarded against”. For me, Stanza 2 translates

“[T]hat I should not insufficient prove
For His beloved Need — [is]
The Chiefest Apprehension
Upon my thronging Mind —”

In ED’s poems, her recurring image of God in Heaven is not one who “Need[s]” anything, least of all from a backwoods poet whose opinion of God in Heaven varies widely from day to day. I think the capitalize masculine pronoun “His” in Line 6 refers Wadsworth. I also think ED considered Wadsworth her “God” on Earth. In all her poems, he alone shared capitalized referring pronouns with God in Heaven.

Stanza 3

Tis true — that Deity to stoop
Inherently incline —
For nothing higher than Itself
Itself can rest upon —

God in Heaven, especially the one described in ED’s poems, doesn’t need anything “Itself can rest upon”, but God on Earth, Wadsworth, is mortal and does.

Once again, both Johnson (1955) and Franklin (1998) interpret the last word in Stanza 3 as “Upon”. This time, a careful look at ED’s manuscript shows that both are obviously wrong, the manuscript “O” is clearly just that. Are they “taking care of Emily” again? She wouldn’t want it or need it.

Stanza 4

So I — the undivine abode
Of His Elect Content —
Conform my Soul — as ’twere a Church,
Unto Her Sacrament —

ED thought of Wadsworth as God on Earth, who had “Elect[ed]” her as an “undivine abode / Of His Elect Content”, whatever that “Content” was. Being Wadsworth’s “Elect[ed]” “abode” meant it was her responsibility to “Conform my Soul — / as ’twere a Church // Unto Her Sacrament”.

ED Lex defines “Sacrament” as a “Sacred symbol; outward sign; visible token; indication of inward spiritual grace”. ED’s God on Earth has entrusted her with his “Elect Content” and her “outward sign” was that she wore only white as a substitute for a wedding ring and an “indication of inward spiritual grace”.

Wadsworth wrote down and saved his sermons, and some of them were published during his lifetime. Occasionally, ED acquired one of these through a friend who knew she was interested. ED read them and sometimes used their concepts and even words in her poems (Barbot 1941; Sewall 1974; Huffer 2002). After Wadsworth died, James D. Clark, a mutual friend of ED and Wadsworth paid to publish a book of those sermons and sent ED a copy (Habegger 2001).

On August 22, 1882, six months after Wadsworth’s death, ED wrote James D. Clark, thanking him for the book of sermons. Her letter (JL994) reveals her innermost feelings about Wadsworth:

“Dear friend,

“Please excuse the trespass of gratitude – My Sister thinks you will accept a few words in recognition of your great kindness [sending a book of Wadsworth’s sermons, which Clark had privately published].

“In an 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.

“I saw him two years since 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 once remarked in talking “I am liable at any time to die,” but I thought it no omen. He spoke on a previous visit of calling upon you, or perhaps remaining a brief time at your Home in Northampton –

“I hope you may tell me all you feel able of that last interview, for he spoke with warmth of you as his friend, and please believe that your kindness is cherished.

“The Sermons will be a sorrowful Treasure. I trust your health is stronger for the Summer Days, and with tender thanks, ask your kind excuse.

E. Dickinson.”

Mary Elizabeth Barbot. 1941. Emily Dickinson Parallels. The New England Quarterly , 14(4): 689-696.
Sewall, Richard Benson, 1974, The Life of Emily Dickinson.
Habegger, Alfred, 2001, My Wars are Laid Away in Books.
Huffer, Mary Lee Stephenson, 2002, Emily Dickinson’s Experiential Poetics PhD Dissertation