642.1863.There is a flower that Bees prefer —

There is a flower that Bees prefer —
And Butterflies — desire —
To gain the Purple Democrat
The Humming Bird — aspire —

And Whatsoever Insect pass —
A Honey bear away
Proportioned to his several dearth
And her — capacity —

Her face be rounder than the Moon
And ruddier than the Gown
Of Orchis in the Pasture —
Or Rhododendron — worn —

She doth not wait for June —
Before the World be Green —
Her sturdy little Countenance
Against the Wind — be seen —

Contending with the Grass —
Near Kinsman to Herself —
For Privilege of Sod and Sun —
Sweet Litigants for Life —

And when the Hills be full —
And newer fashions blow —
Doth not retract a single spice
For pang of jealousy —

Her Public — be the Noon —
Her Providence — the Sun —
Her Progress — by the Bee — proclaimed —
In sovereign — Swerveless Tune —

The Bravest — of the Host —
Surrendering — the last —
Nor even of Defeat — aware —
When cancelled by the Frost —

In ‘The Prowling Bee’, Susan Kornfeld and Adam DeGraff suggest Lines 3-4 of this poem are intentional one-up-womanship, a clever usurpation of Whitman’s democratic grass by ED’s purple clover:

“To gain the Purple Democrat
The Humming Bird — aspire —”

ED claimed that she avoided Whitman’s poetry because he was “disgraceful”:

“You speak of Mr Whitman-I never read his Book-but was told that he was disgraceful-“ (L261 to Higginson, April 25, 1862).

However, this poem, F642, suggests she was stretching the truth. I’ll bet she sneaked a peek now and then at Whitman’s popular poetry.

EDLex has eight definitions of the adjective “Purple”. 8 & 9 are “Ruling; commanding; all-powerful; omnipotent” and “Dark; deep; unfathomable in depth”.
The noun “Democrat” has two definitions, the first is “Politician; advocate for democracy; one who is for government by the people, especially who favors the extension of rights to all classes of people.”

Whitman was an extreme advocate for democracy, who favored “the extension of rights to all classes of people.” He also considered himself a “commanding” poet. Knowing ED’s subtle penchant for iconoclasm, ‘There is a flower that Bees prefer’ may be ED’s tongue-in-cheek put-down of His Majesty.

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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.