844.1864.This Merit hath the worst—

844.1864.This Merit hath the worst—

ED enjambs Line 4 and Line 5 and offers three alternate phrases for Lines 7-8, in {curly brackets} below. I prefer her original phrases in both lines.

This Merit hath the worst—
It cannot be again—
When Fate hath taunted last
And thrown Her furthest Stone— {enjambed with Line 5}

The Maimed may pause, and breathe,
And glance securely round—
The Deer attracts no further {invites no longer -}
Than it resists—the Hound— {Than it evades -}; {Than it eludes -}
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

ED suggested no alternates for F844.

A biographic interpretation of ‘This Merit hath the worst —’ (F844, 1864), couched as ED speaking:

Stanza 1

At dusk on a summer Sunday in 1860, the most famous Presbyterian minister on the east coast and I made love in the orchard of my family’s ‘Homestead’. His name was Reverend Charles Wadsworth, and, after hearing him preach in Philadelphia in 1855 and corresponding for several years, I was hopelessly in love. That night when we said goodbye and for two or three years afterwards, I felt my time with him that day was the apogee of my life. Now, I’ve changed my mind.

I was 29 at the time and, in retrospect, heterosexually naive. Now I feel he took advantage of my naivete with skillful words of love. Call it seduction if you will, but I did consent. I feel he conned me into making love and wince at my mistake.

Each recall of those hours now stings like fire. So tell me, why do I still love him? His silence to each poem and note I send reminds me not to make the same mistake again.

Stanza 2

I feel secure now, but when I mull that fateful dusk, I pause, breathe deep, and glance around to prove he isn’t watching me. He seduced; I consented. Now it seems he seems he has no further interest in me.
…………………………………………………………………………………………

In late March 1855, Vinnie and I visited our Philadelphia cousin, Eliza Coleman, who attended Arch Street Presbyterian Church where Reverend Charles Wadsworth had ministered since 1850. She invited us to join her in her family pew the last Sunday we were there. Wadsworth’s passion, eloquence, authenticity, and deep bass voice stole my heart forever. We corresponded for several years after I heard him preach, and, in my Master Letter 1, I invited him to visit Homestead. (JL187, draft, spring 1858).

That experience and consequent events are the basis of a poem quartet: F841, F842, F843, F844 (all 1864). For a deeper presentation of the background for my biographical interpretations of these poems, see my blog, ED-LarryB.com .

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

That evening at Homestead in 1860 was not the last time ED saw Wadsworth. He visited her again in summer 1880, at her invitation (F1485, 1879):

“Spurn the temerity —
Rashness of Calvary —
Gay were Gethsemane
Knew we of Thee —”

This time he did not RSVP but simply showed up at her front door after giving an invited sermon at James Clark’s church in Northampton, MA. This visit took courage, both for ED when she invited him and for Wadsworth when he knocked on her door.

Sentences 1-2 of Paragraph 2 in the following excerpt from convince me Wadsworth had not communicated with ED for 20 years:

“The last time he came in Life, I was with my Lilies and Heliotropes, said my Sister to me, “the 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 from to the Train” was [his] simple reply, and when I asked “how long”, “Twenty Years” said he with inscrutable roguery – but the loved Voice has ceased.”

Letter to Charles Clark (JL1040, April 15, 1886). ED died exactly one month later. Wadsworth had died on April 1, 1882.

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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.