722.1863.Upon Concluded Lives.ED-LarryB

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”.

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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.