LarryB

Their Hight in Heaven comforts not—
Their Glory—nought to me—
’Twas best imperfect—as it was—
I’m finite—I can’t see—

The House of Supposition—
The Glimmering Frontier that skirts the Acres of Perhaps—
To Me—shows insecure—

The Wealth I had—contented me—
If ’twas a meaner size—
Then I had counted it until
It pleased my narrow Eyes—

Better than larger values—
That show however true—
This timid life of Evidence
Keeps pleading—”I don’t know.”

The antecedent of “Their” in Lines 1&2 is anybody’s guess; mine is angels. ED remained skeptical about heaven and resurrection her entire life. She wanted credible evidence. A letter to ED from Reverend Washington Gladden, dated May 27, 1882, quotes her question from a missing letter: “Is immortality true?”

His reply: “My friend: ‘Is immortality true?’ . . . . Absolute demonstration there can be none of this truth; but a thousand lines of evidence converge toward it; and I believe it.” (Miller and Mitchell 2024, p.682). I doubt ED was convinced.

Stanzas 1 & 2 cleverly enjamb: “I’m finite – I can’t see // The House of Supposition – / “The Glimmering that skirts / The Acres of Perhaps”. This description of Heaven feels too modern, too skeptical to have come from the pen of a mid-19th century rural recluse.

Stanzas 3 & 4 also enjamb: “It pleased my narrow Eyes // Better than larger values / that show, however [whether or not] true”. [My interpretation of “however” In brackets]

ED’s last two lines beg like an honest scientist:

“This timid life of Evidence
Keeps pleading – ‘I don’t know’”

OED lists 1500 AD as the most recent use of the Old English word “hight” to mean “height”. We can safely assume “hight” is an example of ED’s (intentional?) misspelling of a few common words, such as “opon” for “upon”.

Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell, eds., 2024. The Letters of Emily Dickinson, Harvard U. Press. Cambridge, MA, p. 683, Kindle edition.

ED’s alternative words in parentheses:

Each Life converges to some Centre—
Expressed — or still —
Exists in every Human Nature
A Goal —

Embodied (Admitted) scarcely to itself — it may be —
Too fair
For Credibility’s presumption (temerity)
To mar (dare)—

Adored (Beheld) with caution — as a Brittle Heaven —
To reach
Were hopeless, as the Rainbow’s Raiment
To touch —

Yet persevered toward — surer (stricter) — for the Distance —
How high —
Unto the Saints’ slow diligence (industry) —
The Sky —

Ungained — it may be — in a Life’s low Venture —
But then —
Eternity enable the endeavoring
Again.

ED’s eight alternative words suggest she wasn’t entirely happy with this poem, but they may give us a clue as to where she wanted go:

In Line 5, I prefer “Admitted” because it seems to imply ED’s true feelings.

In Lines 7 & 8, I prefer the alternative “temerity” because it implies assertiveness that would “mar”, my preferred final word in the stanza.

In Line 9, I prefer ED’s alternative verb “Beheld” because its subject is “Centre” in Line 1, and “Adored” puts a too positive spin on its subject.

In Lines 13 & 15, I prefer ED’s original words over her alternatives because they fit better in their contexts.

Pronouns “itself” and “it” in Stanzas 2 and 5 refer to “Centre” and “Goal” in Stanza 1. For ED, one would think poetry would be Life’s “Centre”/ “Goal”, and it was, but known only to herself and her friends. She knew that writing for publication would hamstring her freedom to write whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, without kowtowing to some (old male!) editor. Nevertheless, ED dreamed of eventually taking her place among poets of the ages (e.g., F470, 1862):

“That first Day, when you praised Me, Sweet,
And said that I was strong —
And could be mighty, if I liked —
That Day — the Days among —

“Glows Central — like a Jewel
Between Diverging Golds —
The Minor One — that gleamed behind —
And Vaster — of the World’s.”

Stanza 5 seems to rule out poetry as the “Centre/ Goal’ of Stanza 1 unless ED plans to compose poems in Heaven or Hell for Angels or Demons:

“But then-
Eternity enable the endeavoring
Again.”

Nevertheless, there is something “Eternity” might “enable” in the afterlife. By 1863 it was clear to ED that her two attempts at love relationships, Susan Gilbert and Charles Wadsworth, would be “Ungained . . . by a Life’s low Venture -”. Maybe in “Eternity” she’ll get a second chance at love. Oddly, ‘Each Life converges to some Centre’ may be a love poem for Sue or Wadsworth or both, like the dual-purpose ‘You left me – Sire – two Legacies –’ (F713, 1863 ).

In this poem, ED uses a single iamb in nine consecutive even-numbered lines, L4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and L20, which feels a bit contrived but gives the poem’s sound the rhythm of a song. As it reads now, only even-numbered L2 breaks this repetition with two iambs. If her manuscript didn’t firmly format Stanza 1, I would suspect she intended a single iamb in Line 2:

“Each Life converges to some Centre— Expressed —
[O]r still —
Exists in every Human Nature
A Goal —”

A mundane question: What is the subject of the verb “Exists” in Line 3? Clearly, ED intends “Centre” to be the subject, but the lines don’t make sense to me as written. Perhaps she intended an understood subject: “It] Exists in every Human Nature”. I guess if the test is “Does it communicate what the poet meant” then ED gets a free pass for the missing subject.

ED’s alternate words in parentheses:

Have any like Myself
Investigating March,
New Houses on the Hill descried—
And possibly a Church—

That were not, We are sure—
As lately as the Snow—
And are Today—if We exist—
Though how may this be so?

Have any like Myself
Conjectured Who may be
The Occupants of the Adobes—
So easy to the Sky—

Twould seem that God should be
The nearest Neighbor to—
And Heaven—a convenient Grace
For Show, or Company—

Have any like Myself
Preserved the Charm secure (Vision sure, Vision clear)
By shunning carefully the Place (Spot, Site)
All Seasons of the Year,

Excepting March—’Tis then
My (The) Villages be seen—
And possibly a Steeple—
Not afterward—by Men—

In Line 13, ED omitted the contracting apostrophe of “‘Twould”, which is not her usual practice (Fr574). Both Johnson (1955) and Franklin (1998) emend her omission, which seems reasonable to me. In Line 18, I prefer ED’s alternative “Vision clear” over “Charm secure” because it emphasizes that ED realizes the “Villages” are a “Vision”, not real. In Line 19, I prefer “Spot” over “Place” because of its alliteration with “shunning” and the firm sound of the final “t”. In Line 22, I like the possessiveness of “My” better than the alternative “The”.

In New England March, bright blue skies and puffy white clouds occasionally break the dreariness of winter. It’s hard to resist a walk on such a day, and if a poet feels her imagination stirring, she could easily see houses and a steeple in the clouds behind a hill’s horizon. Return tomorrow, it’s likely gone, “Not [seen] afterward – by Men –”.

Stanzas 1-3 describe this mystical village and conjecture who lives there. Her first two lines of Stanza 4 (L9-10) guess that God should live there because the village lies between Earth and Heaven.

Then, suddenly, Lines L11-L12 slam a question in our face. Is “Heaven – a convenient Grace / For Show, or Company?” What happened to the village in the sky with new houses and a steepled church? That question about Heaven sure seems skeptical and even sarcastic to me.

A village that appears once a century is an old German motif, most recently revisited in Brigadoon (1947 musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe). Brigadoon’s precursor, ‘Germelshausen’ is an 1860 German story by Friedrich Gerstäcker about a young artist being forever separated from his love, but the motif predates 1860.

“A cursed village that sank into the earth long ago is permitted to appear for only one day every century. The protagonist happens to be traversing the area as Germelshausen appears. He encounters, and becomes smitten with, a young woman from the village. The romantic tale ends with him leaving the vicinity just in time to avoid becoming entombed with the village and its denizens, but thereby he loses the love of his life.”

ED’s village appears once a year, but the result is the same, gender reversed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germelshausen

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”.

“Nature” is what We see—
The Hill—the Afternoon—
Squirrel—Eclipse—the Bumble bee—
Nay—Nature is Heaven—

“Nature” is what We hear—
The Bobolink—the Sea—
Thunder—the Cricket—
Nay—Nature is Harmony—

“Nature” is what We know—
But have no art to say—
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To Her Sincerity—

In F721, ED returns to “the Conscious Ear” of F718 and, for good measure, adds the Conscious Eye. Once again, in F721, she distinguishes between natural and supernatural. Natural nature is tangible things we see, “The Hill – the Afternoon – / Squirrel – Eclipse – the Bumble bee”, and hear, “The Bobolink – the Sea – / Thunder – the Cricket –”.

But is that all “Nature is”? “Nay”, she firmly injects:

“Nature is Heaven” //
“Nature is Harmony” //
“Nature is what We know / But have no Art to say –”.

Spiritual Nature is inexplicable, “So impotent our Wisdom is / To Her Sincerity”. Just as any honest scientist will tell us, “Humans can never know exactly what is true in nature; we can only approximate truth”, likewise, ED says, “I have no Art to say” exactly what Nature is, only that it is “Heaven”, it is “Harmony”, it is “Melody” that can only be heard and seen with the “Conscious Ear” and Eye. Neither scientists nor ED can explain why some people hear the music of the spheres (Wikipedia, 2024), “the spirit ditties of no tone” (Keats, 1819), “The Singing Wilderness” (Olson, 1961).

Shakespeare’s Lorenzo tells Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, that only immortal souls can hear the music of the spheres:

“Such harmony is in immortal souls,
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”

ED would disagree; she heard the “Harmony”, “But have no Art to say -”. Nor did Shakespeare, Keats, or Olson “have . . . art to say”.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musica_universalis
• Shakespeare, 1598, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, Act 5, Scene 1
• John Keats, 1819 ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’
• Sigurd F. Olson, 1961, ‘The Singing Wilderness’

As if the Sea should part
And show a further Sea —
And that — a further — and the Three
But a presumption be —

Of Periods of Seas —
Unvisited of Shores —
Themselves the Verge of Seas to be —
Eternity — is Those —

Hmmm. In addition to her poetry, ED had the mindset of a scientist. Before she wrote poetry, she collected plant species, accurately identified them, and mounted them on herbarium sheets as professionally as any botanist of her time. More importantly, she questioned dogma and demanded evidence of untested hypotheses like resurrection and heaven. And most importantly, she was a skeptic but kept her mind open to new evidence.

In 1863, when she composed this poem, there were two wars raging, the American Civil War and a Religion/Science War in England and America. Lyell (1830) and Darwin (1859), among others, had challenged Christianity’s dogma of Creation, including how and when it happened. As one might suspect, ED kept a close eye on both wars, avidly reading Bowles’ highly regarded newspaper, ‘The Springfield Republican’, along with ‘The Hampshire and Franklin Express’, and ‘The Amherst Record’. In addition, the Dickinson family subscribed to ‘Harper’s New Monthly Magazine’, ‘Scribner’s Monthly’, and ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ (Capps 1966).

In the poem’s last line, she tries to merge Science and Religion.

An interpretation of ‘As if the Sea should part’ (F720) by a scientist:

Stanza 1 – “To me [ED] the sea seems permanent, but science opened willing eyes, including mine, to possibilities of sea after sea after sea in Earth’s history, but that would be a presumption [hypothesis]”

Stanza 2 – “Those periods of seas – / Unvisited by shores – / Themselves the Verge of Seas to be – / Eternity – is Those –”.

• Charles Lyell, 1830, Principles of Geology,;
• Charles Darwin, 1859, On the Origin of Species
• Capps, J. L., 1966, ‘Emily Dickinson’s Reading’, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 143 pp.

PS. Hooray! Another ED poem without mention of Charles Wadsworth.

In the July and August 1860 issues of The Atlantic Monthly, Harvard’s Asa Gray, the leading botanist in the United States, published an 11,000-word positive review of Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’. Darwin reprinted Gray’s essay as a pamphlet in England.

In the October 1860 issue of The Atlantic, Gray published a , 12,000-word essay countering negative reviews of Darwin’s book, including Louis Agassiz’s. 1859. Essay on Classification (London: Longman). 381 pp.

The Atlantic Monthly was “required reading” in the Dickinson household.

• Juliana Chow. 2014. “Because I see—New Englandly—”: Seeing Species in the Nineteenth-Century and Emily Dickinson’s Regional Specificity. ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance, 60(3): 413-449.

• Asa Gray. 1860. “Darwin on the Origin of Species” and “Darwin and His Reviewers”. The Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 6 Nos. 33, 34, 36.

If He were living—dare I ask—
And how if He be dead—
And so around the Words I went—
Of meeting them—afraid—

I hinted Changes—Lapse of Time—
The Surfaces of Years—
I touched with Caution—lest they crack—
And show me to my fears—

Reverted to adjoining Lives—
Adroitly turning out
Wherever I suspected Graves—
‘Twas prudenter—I thought—

And He—I pushed—with sudden force—
In face of the Suspense—
“Was buried”—”Buried”! “He!”
My Life just holds the Trench—

Scenario – ED has written letters and composed poems and mailed them to Charles Wadsworth in San Francisco but has heard nothing in reply. Her anger and her love collide – and love wins.

Stanza 1 – I imagine the worst: CW has died in San Francisco. Words fail me; I’m afraid.

Stanza 2 – I wrote him anyway, trying to be strong. “I hinted Changes” that have happened for me: “Lapse of Time”, old wounds healed; years have come and gone. I touched these topics cautiously, “lest they crack” [I learn the truth] – “And show me to my [worst] fears”.

Stanza 3 – In case he or a member of his family has died, “’Twas prudenter – I thought –” / “Reverted to adjoining [nearby] Lives – / Adroitly turning out”

Stanza 4 – “And He I pushed with sudden force / In face of the Suspense [my fear] / [that He] “Was buried” – “Buried”! “He!” / [If He is dead,] My Life holds the [his burial] Trench.”

The phrase, “adjoining Lives”, in Stanza 3 probably refers to “James D. Clark, perhaps Wadsworth’s closest friend” who lived in Northampton, MA, 12 miles southwest of Amherst (Thompson 2018). The Belchertown Railroad connected the two towns in 1853.

By pure coincidence, ED’s father had had business dealings with James D. Clark and had introduced ED to him at Homestead. Whatever the purpose of Clark’s call, it must have taken place between 1858 and 1863” (Habegger 2002).

“One of the poet’s memorable encounters occurred when James [D. Clark] . . . showed up at the Dickinson mansion: “I could scarcely have believed, the Morning you called with Mr Brownell,” she wrote some two decades later [L1048, To James D. Clark, Mar 15, 1883], “that I should eventually speak with you, and you only, with the exception of my Sister, of my dearest earthly friend [Wadsworth].” (Habegger 2002)

• (Thompson, Casey.2018, https://waynepres.org/article/the-story-of-emily-dickinson-and-rev-charles-wadsworth).