1314.1874.Because that you are going

1314C.1874.Because that you are going

Because that you are going
And never coming back
And I, however absolute
May overlook your Track –

Because that Death is final,
However first it be
This instant be suspended
Above Mortality.

Significance that each has lived
The other to detect
Discovery not God himself
Could now annihilate

Eternity, Presumption
The instant I perceive
That you, who were Existence
Yourself forgot to live

The “Life that is” will then have been
A Thing I never knew
As Paradise fictitious
Until the Realm of you –

The “Life that is to be,” to me,
A Residence too plain
Unless in my Redeemer’s Face
I recognize your own.

Of Immortality who doubts
He may exchange with me
Curtailed by your obscuring Face
Of Everything but He –

Of Heaven and Hell I also yield
The Right to reprehend
To whoso would commute this Face
For his less priceless Friend.

If “God is Love” as he admits
We think that he must be
Because he is a “jealous God”
He tells us certainly

If “All is possible with” him
As he besides concedes
He will refund us finally
Our confiscated Gods –
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Dickinson created three variants of this poem. I interpret the third, Variant C (above), which she sent to Higginson in January 1874.

My biographical interpretation of F1314C, with ED’s words in italics and my edits in [brackets]. [CW] is Charles Wadsworth:

Stanza 1.

Because that you are going
And never coming back
And I, however absolute
May overlook your Track –

S1.

Because you [CW] are going [to San Francisco] and never coming back, and I, however absolute [as to why], may overlook your [reasons] – . . . [Stanza 1 and 2 are enjambed.]

Stanza 2

Because that Death is final,
However first it be
This instant be suspended
Above Mortality.

S2.

Because that death is final, however [true] it be, [may] this [parting] instant [moment] be suspended above mortality [last forever].

Stanza 3

Significance that each has lived
The other to detect
Discovery not God himself
Could now annihilate

S3.

[The] significance [is] that each [of us] has lived, the other to detect, [a] discovery not God himself could now annihilate.

Stanza 4

Eternity, Presumption
The instant I perceive
That you, who were Existence
Yourself forgot to live

S4.

[Whether our finding each other will last for an] Eternity [is a] Presumption. The instant I perceive that you, yourself, who were existence [to me] forgot to live [during that moment of parting, then . . . ] [Stanza 4-6 are enjambed.]

Stanza 5

The “Life that is” will then have been
A Thing I never knew
As Paradise fictitious
Until the Realm of you –

The “Life that is” will then have been a thing I never knew, as fictitious as paradise, until [I entered] the realm of you. [Stanza 4-6 are enjambed.]

Stanza 6

The “Life that is to be,” to me,
A Residence too plain
Unless in my Redeemer’s Face
I recognize your own.

S6.

[And Heaven,] the “Life that is to be,” [will be] to me, a residence too plain unless in my Redeemer’s face [Christ’s face] I recognize your own.

Stanza 7

Of Immortality who doubts
He may exchange with me
Curtailed by your obscuring Face
Of Everything but He –

S7.

Of Immortality, who doubts He [CW] may [gladly] exchange with me, curtailed by your [Christ’s] obscuring face of everything but He –[CW]

Stanza 8

Of Heaven and Hell I also yield
The Right to reprehend
To whoso would commute this Face
For his less priceless Friend.

S8.

Of Heaven and Hell, I also yield the right to reprehend to whoso would commute this face [CW’s] for his less priceless Friend [ED].

Stanza 9

If “God is Love” as he admits
We think that he must be
Because he is a “jealous God”
He tells us certainly

S9.

If “God is Love” as he [CW] admits, we [ED] think that he [New Testament God] must be because he [Old Testament God] is a “jealous God”, He [CW] tells us certainly.

Stanza 10

If “All is possible with” him
As he besides concedes
He will refund us finally
Our confiscated Gods –

S10.

If “All is possible with” him [God], as he [CW] besides concedes, He [God] will refund us finally our confiscated Gods – [CW returned to Philadelphia in 1869 but apparently had not contacted ED by 1874.]
…………………………………………………………………………………………

Note 1: The last word of Stanza 7 in Variant C, “He”, was not capitalized in Variants A & B. Apparently, ED changed lowercase “he” to capitalized “He” in Variant C to indicate she reveres CW as much as or more than God.

Note 2: In Stanza 9, ED has apparently demoted both “New Testament God” and “Old Testament God” to a lowercase “he”, which may indicate that she reveres CW more than she reveres God.
………………………………………………………………………………………

In 1879, ED [Gethsemane] composed a disguised poem, F1485, ‘Spurn the temerity’, asking Wadsworth [Calvary] how he was after 19 years of silence (1860-1879):

Spurn the temerity –
Rashness of Calvary –
Gay were Gethsemane
Knew we of thee –

Apparently, ED sent the poem to Wadsworth who took her poem as an invitation to visit because he arrived unannounced at her front door in 1880. No doubt, after the 20-year hiatus, the maturer twosome spent an afternoon strolling down memory lane.

In an 1886 letter, JL1040, written to Charles Clark one month before her death, ED described Wadsworth’s visit in endearing terms:

“. . . . . The last time he came in Life [summer 1880], 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 [an invited sermon in Northampton, MA, 12 miles from Amherst] 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 . . . “.
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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.