All Poems

‘Twas warm — at first — like Us —
Until there crept upon
A Chill — like frost upon a Glass —
Till all the scene — be gone.

The Forehead copied stone —
The Fingers grew too cold
To ache — and like a Skater’s Brook —
The busy eyes — congealed —

It straightened — that was all —
It crowded Cold to Cold —
It multiplied indifference —
As Pride were all it could —

And even when with Cords —
‘Twas lowered, like a Weight —
It made no Signal, nor demurred,
But dropped like Adamant.

The vote is in. All published reviewers and TPB commenters on this poem agree on the obvious, it is about a corpse. But before we close the coffin, I’d like to take a second look for a metaphor level. As a mature poet, ED’s poems typically have two or more levels. If this death poem has only one, the literal one, it would be an unusual ED poem.

My guess is that ‘Twas warm — at first — like Us —’ (F614, 1863) is a metaphor describing the death a love relationship that ED thought would last for the rest of her life and then eternally in Heaven. The funeral was May 1, 1862, when Reverend Charles Wadsworth boarded a ship in New York Harbor and set sail to San Francisco. She had to be extremely circumspect in this poem because its metaphor meaning could ruin the lives of both Wadsworth and her.

∙See the explication of the previous poem, F613, ‘The Day that I was crowned’, on this blog, ‘ED-LarryB’.

612.1863.’Tis Opposites — Entice —

‘Tis Opposites — Entice —
Deformed Men — ponder Grace —
Bright fires — the Blanketless —
The Lost — Day’s face —

The Blind — esteem it be
Enough Estate — to see —
The Captive — strangles new —
For deeming — Beggars — play —

To lack — enamor Thee —
Tho’ the Divinity —
Be only
Me —

 

Line 1’s clichéd proposition (opposites attract) suggests Stanza 3’s “Thee” and “Me” could contrast prosaic with poetic personalities. However, Line 10’s capitalized “Divinity” brings to mind a conservative Christian preacher, “Thee” (Wadsworth), and a non-believing “Me” (ED), polar opposites regarding Christian “Fiction” (previous poem, F611).

Stanza 3 consists of four visually and numerically shortening lines of 4, 3, 2, 1 words with all lines perfect rhymes: “Thee”, “Divinity”, “only”, “Me”. Dazzling pyrotechnics, no?

I suspect ED’s skeptical search for life’s meaning, expressed in her pre-1860 letters to Wadsworth, is what “Enticed”/“Enamored” him to visit her at ‘Homestead’ in summer 1860.

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”. EDLex defines “swoon” as “a fainting fit, delirium, excitement, exaggeration of emotion.” Given ED’s frankness about sex in later poems, my guess is she meant orgasm. After about 1862 she wore only white, and she was buried in a white coffin in 1886.

From 1861-1863, ED used “Diadem” in 13 poems, skipped the years 1864-1865, and in 1866 she used the word 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 14^th 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, a letter containing 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):

1. F124, 1861, Safe in their Alabaster Chambers
2. F246, 1861, The Sun – just touched the Morning
3. F248, 1861, One life of so much consequence!
4. F253, 1861, I’m ceded – I’ve stopped being Theirs’s –
5. F254, 1861, A Mien to move a Queen –
6. F267, 1861, Rearrange a “Wife’s” Affection!
7. F385, 1862, I’ll clutch – and clutch –
8. F418, 1863, Your Riches – taught me – Poverty.
9. F481, 1863, Fame of Myself, to justify,
10. F553, 1863, When Diamonds are a Legend,
11. F597, 1863, ‘Tis little I – could care for Pearls –
12. F600, 1863, Her – last Poems –
13. F613, 1863, Were dull for Diadem –
14. F1121, 1866, The Sky is low – the Clouds are mean.

 

1. Barbot, Mary E. 1941. Emily Dickinson Parallels. The New England Quarterly. 14(4): 689-696.
2. Franklin, R.W. 1999. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition. 1040 pp.

Variant A. Sent to Sue; signed Emily; Lines 1-10 (first leaf) missing.
(ED’s alternative words in parentheses)

Nor Myself to Him, by accent
Forfeit probity.
Weariness of Him, were quainter
Than Monotony
Knew a particle, of Space’s
Vast society –
Neither if He visit other –
Do He dwell or nay
Know I – just (But) instinct esteem Him
Immortality

 

Variant B

Conscious am I in my Chamber –
Of a shapeless friend –
He doth not attest by Posture –
Nor confirm – by Word –

Neither Place – need I present Him –
Fitter Courtesy
Hospitable intuition
Of His Company –

Presence – is His furthest license –
Neither He to Me
Nor Myself to Him – by Accent –
Forfeit Probity

Weariness of Him, were quainter
Than Monotony
Knew a Particle – of
Space’s Vast Society –

Neither if He visit Other –
Do He dwell – or Nay – know I-
But Instinct esteem Him (Report Him)
Immortality –

I think the longest Hour of all
Is when the Cars have come —
And we are waiting for the Coach —
It seems as though the Time

Indignant — that the Joy was come —
Did block the Gilded Hands —
And would not let the Seconds by —
But slowest instant — ends —

The Pendulum begins to count —
Like little Scholars — loud —
The steps grow thicker — in the Hall —
The Heart begins to crowd —

Then I — my timid service done —
Tho’ service ’twas, of Love —
Take up my little Violin —
And further North — remove –

 

ED used the word:

“North” in 14 Poems,
“East” in 30 poems,
“South” in 16 poems,
“West” in 27 poems,

and sometimes she used two or more of these in one poem.

 

During 1850-1853, ED’s father led a small group of investors who built the Amherst and Belchertown Railroad, connecting Amherst with the American rail system. No doubt he was the one who encouraged locating the passenger station on Main Street, 200 yards east of Homestead. Perhaps Time did “block the Gilded Hands” of the clock, but not for very long. With no luggage, visitors could easily walk to Homestead in 10 minutes.

Despite ED’s impatience with Time, when she heard steps “in the Hall” she “timidly” bid hello, felt crowded in her “Heart”, and vanished to her room to play her “little violin”, that is, to compose poetry. ED often referred to composing poems as “singing”, but she used the “violin” metaphor twice, here in F607 and 20 years later in F1627 (1883), ‘The Spirit lasts — but in what mode’.

From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
As Lady from her Door
Emerged — a Summer Afternoon —
Repairing Everywhere —

Without Design — that I could trace
Except to stray abroad
On miscellaneous Enterprise
The Clovers — understood —

Her pretty Parasol be seen
Contracting in a Field
Where Men made Hay —
Then struggling hard
With an opposing Cloud —

Where Parties — Phantom as Herself —
To Nowhere — seemed to go
In purposeless Circumference —
As ’twere a Tropic Show —

And notwithstanding Bee — that worked —
And Flower — that zealous blew —
This Audience of Idleness
Disdained them, from the Sky —

Till Sundown crept — a steady Tide —
And Men that made the Hay —
And Afternoon — and Butterfly —
Extinguished — in the Sea —

 

F609 and F610 feel related, both about passing days, both in languid language, and actors in both, grains of sand and butterflies, vanish in time’s sea. Perhaps that’s why Franklin numbered them consecutively.

However, he dated them “summer 1863” and “last half 1863”, and ED put them in Fascicle 26 (Poem 21) and Fascicle 29 (Poem 1), respectively. Also, F609 is a love poem of patient waiting for reunion in heaven, while F610 segues from a summer day (Stanzas 1-4) to meaningless merging with the sea (Stanzas 5-6).

F609-F610 inference? Make hay while the sun shines for tomorrow the bell tolls for thee?