782.1863. Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—

ED’s alternate words in parentheses:

Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—
The letting go
A Presence—for an Expectation—
Not now—
The putting out of Eyes—
Just Sunrise—
Lest Day—
Day’s Great Progenitor—
Outvie (Outshow, Outglow)
Renunciation—is the Choosing
Against itself—
Itself to justify
Unto itself—
When larger function—
Make that appear—
Smaller—that Covered (flooded, sated) Vision—Here—

Lines 10-16 of this poem declare ED’s allegiance to poetry and her decision to forgo future marital ambitions.

Lines L10-L13 disguise ED by a favorite ploy, switching pronouns. Uncamouflaged, I think ED’s lines read:

“Renunciation is the choosing
Against [myself,]
[Myself] to justify
Unto [myself.]”

This poem (Fr782) is Emily Dickinson’s “Declaration of Letting Go”, that is, “letting go” of her pathological obsession with Charles Wadsworth and henceforward dedicating her life to her “Vision”, writing immortal poems. If so, she may have a problem: Wadsworth was her main muse.

For a fuller explanation of the biographical history between ED and Wadsworth, see “Biographic History of Emily Dickinson and Reverend Charles Wadsworth” on my blog,

I think Fr782 consists of four complete sentences. Here’s my interpretation of Fr782 with ED’s alternate words in (parentheses) and EDLexicon definitions in <angle brackets>:

Renunciation is a <painful> virtue, the letting go of an <emotion> for a <hope>.
Not now abandoning my vision of being a poet, but rebirth of my vision, lest infatuation, love’s great progenitor, outglow my vision of being a poet.
Renunciation is the choosing against myself, myself to justify unto myself.
When larger vision makes that infatuation appear smaller, then larger vision has won.

True to her “Declaration” to remain single, in 1878, when a real suitor, retired Massachusetts Supreme Court Chief Justice Otis Phillips Lord, asked her hand in marriage, or at least some mutually satisfying relationship, such as connubial partnership, ED said “No” (JL562)

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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.