613.1863.The Day that I was crowned
The Day that I was crowned
Was like the other Days —
Until the Coronation came —
And then — ’twas Otherwise —
As Carbon in the Coal
And Carbon in the Gem
Are One — and yet the former
Were dull for Diadem —
I rose, and all was plain —
But when the Day declined
Myself and It, in Majesty
Were equally — adorned —
The Grace that I — was chose —
To Me — surpassed the Crown
That was the Witness for the Grace —
‘Twas even that ’twas Mine —
During summer 1860. Reverend Charles Wadsworth visited ED at the Dickinson’s “Homestead” in Amherst. My guess is that his visit was “The Day that I was crowned” (Line 1, F613). I think that in ED’s fertile imagination, “Diadem” was a codeword for “Mrs.”. Supporting that contention, Poem F194 (1861), “Title divine, is mine”, begins:
“Title divine, is mine.
The Wife without the Sign –
Acute Degree conferred on me –
Empress of Calvary –
Royal, all but the Crown –
Betrothed, without the Swoon
God gives us Women –
. . . . ”
After that summer day in 1860, ED was convinced Wadsworth had told her that they could marry when they met in Heaven. Meanwhile, ED resigned herself to a life of chastity, “Betrothed, without the swoon / God gives us Women”. After about 1862 she wore only white, and she was buried in a white coffin in 1886.
From 1861-1863, ED used capitalized “Diadem” in 13 poems, skipped the years 1864-1865, and in 1866 she used “Diadem” in one poem, F1121. She never used the word in a poem before 1861 or after 1866. She capitalized “Diadem” in all 14 poems. Clearly, “Diadem” was important to ED during 1861-1863 and in 1866, but not before or after those years.
“Diadem” was also one of Wadsworth’s favorite words. He used it in an estimated 56 sermons during 33 years of preaching, 1850-1882. He used it in 20 sermons he delivered in San Francisco, 1862-1869. After he returned to Philadelphia in 1869, he used the word “diadem” in 15 published sermons, for a total of 35 sermons in 20 years. If, in his first 12 years of ministry (Philadelphia, 1850-1862), he used the word at the same rate, his lifetime total use of “diadem” was about 56 times in 33 years of ministry.
In 1941, without benefit of computer word search, Mary Barbot concluded: “Somewhat impressive, also, is Wadsworth’s use of [one] of Emily Dickinson’s favorite words, ‘diadem’, no less than thirty times” (Barbot, 1941).
Today, Barbot would have to conclude: “Somewhat impressive, also, is Dickinson’s use of ‘Diadem’, one of Wadsworth’s favorite words, no less than 14 times in six years of poetry, 1861-1866. He used the word approximately 56 times in 33 years of ministry”.
As always, evidence of Wadsworth’s influence on ED is circumstantial, but 1861-1866 is exactly the period of ED’s manic turmoil. During those six years ED wrote 947 poems, well over half of her 36-year career total. It is worth noting that Wadsworth and family set sail from New York Harbor on May 1, 1862, bound for San Francisco, where they lived for nine years.
ED thought she was never going to see Reverend Charles Wadsworth again. Her 14th and last “Diadem” poem (F1121, 1866), bids him an angry but sad sayonara:
“The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean.
A Travelling Flake of Snow
Across a Barn or through a Rut
Debates if it will go —
A Narrow Wind complains all Day
How some one treated him
Nature, like Us is sometimes caught
Without her Diadem”
The word “him” is a gender switch, one of ED’s favorite camouflage tricks.
When Charles Wadsworth died in 1882, ED sent his best friend, James Clark, Letter 994, containing this sentence: “He was my Shepherd from “Little Girl”hood and I cannot conjecture a world without him, so noble was he always – so fathomless – so gentle.” (L994 to James D. Clark, August 22, 1882).
She was wrong about never seeing him again. In summer 1880 he showed up unexpectedly at her front door, but that’s another story.
ED’s 14 “Diadem” poems (Franklin Number, Franklin Year, Title):
- F124, 1861, Safe in their Alabaster Chambers
- F246, 1861, The Sun – just touched the Morning
- F248, 1861, One life of so much consequence!
- F253, 1861, I’m ceded – I’ve stopped being Theirs’s –
- F254, 1861, A Mien to move a Queen –
- F267, 1861, Rearrange a “Wife’s” Affection!
- F385, 1862, I’ll clutch – and clutch –
- F418, 1863, Your Riches – taught me – Poverty.
- F481, 1863, Fame of Myself, to justify,
- F553, 1863, When Diamonds are a Legend,
- F597, 1863, ‘Tis little I – could care for Pearls –
- F600, 1863, Her – last Poems –
- F613, 1863, Were dull for Diadem –
- F1121, 1866, The Sky is low – the Clouds are mean.
- Barbot, Mary E. 1941. Emily Dickinson Parallels. The New England Quarterly. 14(4): 689-696.
- Franklin, R.W. 1999. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition. 1040 pp.