All Poems

674.1863.I could not prove the Years had feet –

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I could not prove the Years had feet –
Yet confident they run
Am I, from symptoms that are past
And Series that are done –
I find my feet have further Goals –
I smile opon the Aims
That felt so ample – Yesterday –
Today’s – have vaster claims –
I do not doubt the self I was
Was competent to me –
But something awkward in the fit –
Proves that – outgrown – I see –

Given ED’s track record of 674 inimitable poems, “Series that are done” and self-confidence in her future:

“I find my feet have further Goals –
I smile opon the Aims
That felt so ample – Yesterday –
Today’s – have vaster claims –”,

she set a high bar for herself. Apologies to Bogey and Ingrid, but “Here’s looking at you Kid”.

“I’m fascinated by the slow transition we see happening in many of these poems, from a past self devoted to “lover(s)” to an emerging self that has vaster claims” (d. scribe, TPB, F674).

Yes, ED’s poems in Franklin’s estimated chronological order seem headed the way you say, d. scribe, but the slope is moguled. For example, this and the two preceding poems, F672, F673, and F674, are a gamut of love: angry, fawning, and objective. Trite but true, ED’s “slow transition” has peaks and valleys that never end, like life.

673.1863.A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!

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A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!
Its fee – to be of Gold –
Had Nature – in Her monstrous House
A single Ragged Child –
To earn a Mine – would run
That Interdicted Way,
And tell Him – Charge thee speak it plain –
That so far – Truth is True?
And answer What I do –
Beginning with the Day
That Night – begun –
Nay – Midnight – ’twas –
Since Midnight – happened – say –
If once more – Pardon – Boy –
The Magnitude thou may
Enlarge my Message – If too vast
Another Lad – help thee –
Thy Pay – in Diamonds – be –
And His – in solid Gold –
Say Rubies – if He hesitate –
My Message – must be told –
Say – last I said – was This –
That when the Hills – come down –
And hold no higher than the Plain –
My Bond – have just begun –
And when the Heavens – disband –
And Deity conclude –
Then – look for me. Be sure you say –
Least Figure – on the Road –

 

‘A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!’, F673, angles for revelation of the identity of Line 1’s “Him”. Begging purists’ pardon for de-universalizing the poem, but ED capitalizes masculine pronouns only for God and Reverend Charles Wadsworth. Her poetic opinion of Wadsworth ranged from seething anger in the previous poem, ‘Take your Heaven further on —’ (F672), to hyperbolic fawning here in F673. One day her Wadsworth obsession will end, and she will remember him as “my Philadelphia,” “my Clergyman,” “my dearest earthly friend” and “my Shepherd from ‘Little Girl’hood”, but her poems haven’t gotten there yet.

Today, the literal “Interdicted Way” from New England to San Francisco is 3000 miles of continent, but in 1863 it was 5000 miles via ship and Panama’s isthmus railroad. In this poem the poet seeks “A single Ragged Child” [who]

“To earn a Mine – would run
That Interdicted Way,
And tell Him – Charge thee speak it plain –
That so far – Truth is True?”
/ / /
“And when the Heavens – disband –
And Deity conclude –
Then – look for me. Be sure you say –
Least Figure – on the Road –”

That is, the poet has been and will always remain faithful to “Him”.

672.1863.Take your Heaven further on-

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Take your Heaven further on —
This — to Heaven divine Has gone —
Had You earlier blundered in
Possibly, e’en You had seen
An Eternity — put on —
Now — to ring a Door beyond
Is the utmost of Your Hand —
To the Skies — apologize —
Nearer to Your Courtesies
Than this Sufferer polite —
Dressed to meet You —
See — in White!

ED had reached the anger stage of grief recovery, and she aimed her darts at Wadsworth, yet she still loved him. As evidence of her enduring love for Wadsworth and his for her, here is an 1879 “Calvary” poem (F1485) that affirmed her concern for Wadsworth in a sweet quatrain, ‘Spurn the temerity —’:

“Spurn the temerity —
Rashness of Calvary —
Gay were Gethsemane
Knew we of Thee —

It would not surprise me if she mailed F1485 to Wadsworth in 1879, though we have no hard evidence that happened. At any rate, the following summer, 1880, he showed up unannounced at her front door:

“Where did you come from,” I said, for he spoke like an Apparition.

“I stepped from my Pulpit to the Train” was [his] simple reply, and when I asked “how long,” “Twenty Years” said he with inscrutable roguery – but the loved Voice has ceased.”
(Letter 1040 to Charles Clark, April 15, 1886, exactly one month before she died)

The ED-Wadsworth “love affair” was likely a marriage of two disparate minds who agreed to disagree, both deeply spiritual, one an eloquent conservative Christian minister, the other a world-class agnostic poet. They died good friends, in 1882 and 1886 respectively.

PS1, Apparently, “Calvary” and “Gethsemane” are ED’s code names for Wadsworth and herself. She had to be careful in her poems to protect Wadsworth’s reputation and her privacy. ‘Spurn the temerity —’ (F1485, 1879) is the 12th and last of her “Calvary” poems.

PS2, Wadsworth, who was 66 in 1880 and nearing the end of his life, apparently made the 500-mile roundtrip from his home in Philadelphia to visit friends James and Charles Clark in Northampton and deliver a sermon at their church. He must have made the 12-mile train trip to Amherst that afternoon to visit ED. “Twenty Years” was a his roguish reference to his previous visit with her in Amherst in summer 1860.

671.1863.The sweetest Heresy received

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The sweetest Heresy received
That Man and Woman know –
Each Other’s Convert –
Though the Faith accommodate but Two –

The Churches are so frequent –
The Ritual – so small –
The Grace so unavoidable –
To fail – is Infidel –

ED Lexicon defines “Convert” (Line 3) and “Infidel” (Line 8), respectively, as metaphors for “Lover” and “Shameful”.

This poem is about an archtypic Christian True Believer and an archtypic Agnostic who agreed to disagree.

That spark of tension lit the fire of a friendship that lasted their lifetimes. Their marriage of minds was “The sweetest Heresy” that “Man and Woman know”. In August 1882, four months after the Christian died and four years before the Agnostic descended in a white coffin that symbolized her faithfulness to their marriage and to her poetry, ED could honestly say of Reverend Charles Wadsworth:

“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, August 22, 1882, from ED to James D. Clark, Wadsworth’s best friend).

Never underestimate ED. (Comments on Fr 671,TPB, June 24-27, 2025)

783.1863.Never for Society

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783.1863. Never for Society

 ED’s alternative words in parentheses

 Never for Society
He shall seek in vain—
Who His own acquaintance
Cultivate—Of Men

Wiser Men (One, Ear) may weary—
But the Man within
Never knew Satiety—
Better (Braver) entertain


Than could Border Ballad—
Or Biscayan Hymn—
Neither introduction.
Need You—unto Him—

I prefer ED’s published words in both lines with alternates, L5 & L8.

Adam DeGraff, blogmeister of The Prowling Bee, provides an excellent explication of this poem, especially his sentence:

“A majority of the poems written before this one in Dickinson’s oeuvre exhibit a painful yearning for a Beloved. In this one the Beloved has been internalized as Self” marks a watershed moment.”

ED probably paired this poem, Fr783 (Fascicle 37 Poem 11), with the previous one, ‘Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—’ (Fr782, Fascicle 37 Poem 10), as a celebration of this watershed moment. She pledges herself as only she could, encrypted with a pronoun switch:

Renunciation—is the Choosing
Against itself [myself]—
Itself [myself] to justify
Unto itself [myself]—

661.1863.Some such Butterfly be seen

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Second half 1863. Five alternate words and one phrase, in parentheses

Some such Butterfly be seen
On Brazilian Pampas —
Just at noon — no later — Sweet (Than) —
Then — the License (Vision, Pageant) closes —

Some such Spice (Rose) — express – and pass —
Subject (present) to Your Plucking —
As the Stars — You knew last Night —
Foreigners (Know not You -) — This Morning —

‘Some such Butterfly be seen’ (Fr661) could easily be about Sue, whom ED called “Butterfly” in ‘One Sister have I in our house’ (Fr7, 1858) and “Sweet” in ‘That first Day, when you praised Me, Sweet’ (470.1862). But, using ED’s alternative words and phrase, the poem becomes universal:

“Just at noon — no later — (Than) —
Then — the (Vision) closes —

“Some such (Rose) — express – and pass —
(Present) to Your Plucking —”

We all have missed opportunities because we hesitated. Horace warns us, “carpe diem”:

“Cut short long-term hopes. While we are speaking, envious life
will have fled: seize the day, trusting the future as little as possible.”

(Ode 11, Lines 7-8)

 

 

782.1863. Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—

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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>:

  1. Renunciation is a <painful> virtue, the letting go of an <emotion> for a <hope>.
  2. 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.
  3. Renunciation is the choosing against myself, myself to justify unto myself.
  4. 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)