All Poems

Biographic History of Emily Dickinson and Reverend Charles Wadsworth

While visiting a friend in Philadelphia in March1855, ED, age 24, heard Rev. Wadsworth deliver a sermon at his church, Arch Street Presbyterian. Apparently, Wadsworth’s sermon, and his deep voice, lit an emotional and intellectual fire in ED that resulted in a two-way correspondence and an 1860 visit by Wadsworth to her home in Amherst. That sermon, their correspondence, and his visit may help explain ED’s manic burst of productivity during the next five years, 1861-1865: a total of 937 poems, more than half her oeuvre of 1789 poems in 37 years of composition, 1850-1886.

Before ED’s death in 1886, she asked her sister, Vinnie, to burn all her correspondence. Vinnie complied except for one undated letter from Wadsworth to ED and three drafts of letters from ED to “Master”. His letter to her probably predates his first visit to Amherst because he misspells her name in its salutation and his stationary bears a monogram he stopped using in 1862:

“My Dear Miss Dickenson [sic] —

I am distressed beyond measure at your note, received this moment, — I can only imagine the affliction which has befallen, or is now befalling you.

Believe me, be what it may, you have all my sympathy, and my constant, earnest prayers.

I am very, very anxious to learn more definitely of your trial — and though I have no right to intrude upon your sorrow yet I beg you to write me, though it be but a word.

In great haste
Sincerely and most
Affectionately Yours —”

Wadsworth underlined the word, “Yours”, but did not sign the letter.

The tone of his letter is sincere ministerial concern for her, but given ED ‘s attraction to him, how did she interpret that underlined “Yours”? Why Wadsworth suddenly resigned his Philadelphia position in early 1862 and moved to San Francisco and how that personally affected ED’s life begs explanation.

Wadsworth’s charismatic sermons had filled Arch Street Presbyterian pews since his arrival in 1850, but his belief that the Bible condoned slavery did not sit well with his mostly anti-slavery congregation. When the Civil War began in April 1861, Wadsworth stood firmly for preserving the United States as one nation and thus sided with the Union in his sermons, but that didn’t satisfy his anti-slavery congregation. Friction followed, and he resigned his position at Arch Street Presbyterian in early 1862.

Simultaneously, in San Francisco, the struggling congregation of the 10-year-old Calvary Presbyterian Church grew increasingly dissatisfied with their Reverend William Scott, who supported both slavery and secession of slave states in his sermons. Threats followed. Scott resigned in July 1871 and sailed to Birmingham, England where he pastored John Street Presbyterian Church for two years.

Scott had known Wadsworth in seminary, and “After resigning in July 1861, Scott may have asked his friend to consider a call from Calvary Church as his successor; their friendship probably contributed to Wadsworth’s being chosen to replace Scott at a meeting of the congregation on 9 December 1861.” (Lease 1990). Wadsworth accepted, resigned from Arch Street Presbyterian, and moved to San Francisco in May 1862.

Apparently, in September 1861 ED learned of Wadsworth’s impending decision to move and felt terror of abandonment, which may explain her cryptic comment to Higginson in a letter dated April 28, 1862: “I had a terror – since September – I could tell to none – and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground, because I am afraid”. At that time, ED apparently knew nothing about the real reason why Wadsworth decided to leave the east coast. (Johnson letter J-L261, Miller and Mitchell letter M&M-L338)

In her last “Calvary” poem (F1485, 1879), ED affirmed her enduring concern and now platonic love for Wadsworth in a quatrain, ‘Spurn the temerity’:

Spurn the temerity –
Rashness of Calvary –
Gay were Gethsemane
Knew we of thee –

ED Lexicon defines “Gethsemane” metaphorically as “Scene of agony; circumstance of unimaginable pain; situation of extreme anguish”, which pretty well describes ED’s mental state during 1861-1863 and perhaps longer.

If “Calvary” codes for Wadsworth and “Gethsemane” for ED, F1479 translates line by line:

“Ignore my brash boldness,
My rashness when you accepted pastorship of Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco.
I would be gay now
If I knew how you are doing.”

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

Wadsworth died two years later, on April 1, 1882. In August 1882 ED wrote his best friend, James Clark, asking for memories of him (L994). By pure chance, ED’s father had introduced her to James in 1859. He and his brother, Charles, lived during summers at the Clark family home in Northampton, MA, 12 miles southwest of Amherst.

Her letter speaks for itself:

“August 1882

Dear friend,

Please excuse the trespass of gratitude. My Sister [Vinnie] thinks you will accept a few words in recognition of your great kindness.

In a [sic] intimacy of many years with the beloved Clergyman, I have never before spoken with one who knew him, and his Life was so shy and his tastes so unknown, that grief for him seems almost unshared.

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. [Actually, ED was 24 when she attended his sermon, March 1855]

I saw him two years since [summer 1880] for the last time, though how unsuspected!

He rang one summer evening to my glad surprise – “Why did you not tell me you were coming, so I could have it to hope for,” I said – “Because I did not know it myself. I stepped from my Pulpit to the Train,” was his quiet reply. . . . . . He [had] spoken on a previous visit [1860] of calling upon you [James Clark], or perhaps remaining a brief time at your Home in Northampton. . . . . . . .

E Dickinson.”

James Clark died in 1883. Two years later in mid-April 1886, four weeks before her own death, ED wrote Clark’s brother, Charles, describing Wadsworth’s 1880 visit with her in Amherst (Johnson letter L1040, Miller and Mitchell letter, L1298):

“Thank you [for a previous letter], Dear friend, I am better. The velocity of the ill, however, is like that of the snail. . . . . .

I could hardly have thought it possible that the scholarly Stranger [James Clark] to whom my Father introduced me [in 1859] could have mentioned my Friend [Charles Wadsworth] . . . . .

With the exception of my Sister [Vinnie] who never saw Mr Wadsworth, your Name alone [now] remains.

Going Home” [dying], was he not an Aborigine of the sky? The last time he came in Life [summer 1880], I was with my Lilies and Heliotropes, said my sister to me, “[T]he Gentleman with the deep voice wants to see you, Emily,” hearing him ask of the servant. “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” [1860-1880] said he with inscrutable roguery – but [his] loved Voice has ceased, and to someone who [heard] him “Going Home,” it was sweet to speak. . . . . . Excuse me for the [my] Voice, this moment immortal. . . . .”

E Dickinson.”

1. Johnson, T.H. 1958. The Letters of Emily Dickinson
2. Lease, Benjamin, 1990, Emily Dickinson’s Readings of Men and Books
3. Miller, Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell, 2024, The Letters of Emily Dickinson

 

During her lifetime ED composed 12 “Calvary” poems:

“Calvary” Poems

Year      Fr#         “Calvary” lines
1861     194        Empress of Calvary
1862     283        The Palm -without the Calvary –
1862     325        Justified-through Calvaries of Love-
1862     347        The Queen of Calvary-
1862     398        Key of Calvary-
1862     431        In Calvary-
1863     550        In passing Calvary-
1863     652        But Calvary
1863     670        One Calvary-exhibited to Stranger
1863     686        For passing Calvary-
1863     749        Cashmere-or Calvary-the same
1879    1485       Rashness of Calvary-

Summary of Calvary poem occurrences:

Years               Time (yrs)      Poems        F#s
1850-1860             11               0              F1-F193
1861-1863              3              11             F194-F7491
1864-1978            15               0              F750-F1485
1879                        1               1              F779
1880-1886              7               0              F1486-F1789

“Remorse — is Memory — awake —
Her Parties all (Companies) astir —
A Presence of Departed Acts —
At window — and at Door —

Its Past — set down before the Soul
And lighted with a Match —
Perusal — to facilitate —
And help Belief to stretch — (Of it’s Condensed Despatch —)

Remorse is cureless — the Disease
Not even God — can heal —
For ’tis His institution — and
The Adequate (Complement) of Hell —”

ED’s alternate words and phrases are in parentheses. I prefer ED’s original “Parties all” (Line 2) because of its legal implications, ED’s alternate “Of its Condensed Despatch” (Line 8) because of the subject-verb-direct object construction of “Match facilitates Perusal of the Despatch”, and her alternate “Complement”, (Line 12) because of its parallelism with “Hell”.

Definitions from EDLex and OED:

L1 – Remorse: Sorrow; anguish; grief; regret; guilt; pain
L1 – Memory: Past events; former experiences stored in the mind.
L2 – Parties: Opposing sides in a dispute
L6 – Lighted: To provide light (OED)
L8 – Condensed: Collected
L8 – Despatch: A written message sent off promptly (OED, def. II.8)
L11 – Institution: Establishment
L12 – Complement: Equivalent

I think the pronouns, “Her” (Line 2), “Its” (Line 5), and “It’s” (alternate Line 8), refer to “Memory”.

ED’s alternate Line 8 in Stanza 2, “Of it’s Condensed Despatch”, leaves us puzzling over ED’s meaning of the word “Despatch”. Occasionally during the 19^th century, publications used the noun “despatch” to mean “A written message . . . ” (OED, def. II.8). Given the context of alternate Line 8, I think this is what ED meant by “its [Memory’s] condensed despatch”.

Here are my takes on Stanzas 1-3 in prose sentences, ED’s spelling corrected, my choice of ED’s alternatives in parentheses, and my emendations in brackets:

1. Remorse is memory awake, her parties all astir, the presence of departed acts at window and at door.
2. Its [Memory’s] past set down before the soul and lighted with a match, perusal to facilitate of its [Memory’s] condensed Despatch.
3. Remorse is cureless, the disease not even God can heal, for ’tis His institution, and the [earthly] complement of Hell.

 

‘Remorse — is Memory — awake —’ (F781) can be read as personal or universal. We’ve all said or done things we wish we hadn’t. Taken to extreme, we obsess in a woulda-coulda-shoulda spiral that goes nowhere. But poems don’t come from nowhere, they germinate from seed. I think the seed(s) for this poem was/were (1) Sue’s post-engagement estrangement from ED and/or (2) ED’s perceived abandonment by Reverend Charles Wadsworth when he and his family sailed from New York to San Francisco on May 1, 1862.

(1): ED’s remorse may stem from an unwise break-up letter she sent Susan Gilbert (Dickinson) on August 1, 1854 (JL173). Sue Gilbert and Austin Dickinson had announced their engagement in March 1853, and, after their engagement, Sue naturally shifted her attention from ED to Austin, leading ED to pen the breakup letter:

“………….. Sue – you can go or stay – There is but one alternative – We differ often lately, and this must be the last.
………….

“We have walked very pleasantly – Perhaps this is the point at which our paths diverge – then [I] pass on singing Sue, and up the distant hill I journey on………..”

(2): We don’t know what ED’s assumptions were about Wadsworth’s reason for leaving the east coast, but she reacted with poems ranging from (1) blaming, to (2) pleading, to (3) forgiving, and, 17 years later, to (4) inquiring how he was faring (Asterisks indicate poems that include ED’s codename for Wadsworth, “Calvary”):

1. Blaming (‘Take your Heaven further on —’, F672, second half of 1862,),
2. Pleading (‘A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!’, F673, second half 1863),
3. Forgiving (‘That I always did love’, F652, second half 1863)*; (‘Tis true – They shut me in the Cold’, F658, second half 1863),
4. Inquiring (‘Spurn the temerity’, F1485, 1879)*.

Asterisks (*) indicate poems that include ED’s codename for Wadsworth, “Calvary”.

 

Wadsworth’s real reason for leaving Philadelphia stemmed from friction with his congregation over whether the Bible condoned slavery. He believed it did and most of them did not. Civil War fever ran hot, and Wadsworth resigned from his pulpit of 12 years, despite his enormous success at filling pews.

ED was probably unaware of his real motivation and assumed he had simply abandoned her. She was wrong, hence the remorse expressed in this poem, and many others. For a fuller explanation of the biographical history between ED and Wadsworth, see comments on ‘ED-LarryB’ blog:

Biographic History of ED and Reverend Charles Wadsworth

652.1863.That I did always love

The Birds reported from the South —
A News express to Me —
A spicy Charge, My little Posts —
But I am deaf — Today —

The Flowers — appealed — a timid Throng —
I reinforced the Door —
Go blossom for the Bees — I said —
And trouble Me — no More —

The Summer Grace, for Notice strove —
Remote — Her best Array —
The Heart — to stimulate the Eye
Refused too utterly —

At length, a Mourner, like Myself,
She drew away austere —
Her frosts to ponder — then it was
I recollected Her —

She suffered Me, for I had mourned —
I offered Her no word —
My Witness — was the Crape I bore —
Her — Witness — was Her Dead —

Thenceforward — We — together dwelt —
I never questioned Her —
Our Contract
A Wiser Sympathy

ED delights in pronoun play and this poem is no exception. The “Her” in Line 10 must refer to “Summer”, but the “She” in Line 14 must refer to “Heart” in Line 11, as do the “Her”[s] in Lines 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 (twice), and 22. The “We” in Line 21 probably refers to both ED and her “Heart” at the same time, which is a clever personification of ED’s Heart.

Stanza 1

Line 1, “The Birds reported from the South” tells us this poem dates about late spring-early summer, and Franklin dates this poem “about late 1863”. On May 1, 1862, Reverend Charles Wadsworth, one of the two loves ED’s life, sailed with his family from New York, bound for San Francisco, as far as she knew, never to return. In Line 3, I prefer ED’s alternate word, “Friends”, over “Posts” because it’s friendlier, and softens Line 4, “But I am deaf – Today”.

Stanza 4

In Line 16, I much prefer ED’s alternate phrase, “rose to comfort”, over the four-syllable word, “recollected” because it suggests true sister-like empathy between ED and her “Heart” and because it prepares readers for their silent conversation in Stanzas 5 and 6. Those last two stanzas of the poem remind me of the intimacy ED and Sue shared before Sue and Austin announced their engagement in March 1853 (‘One Sister have I in our house’, Fr5, 1858).

After her engagement, Sue naturally shifted her attention from ED to Austin, leading ED to pen an unwise breakup letter on August 1, 1854 (JL173):

“Sue – you can go or stay – There is but one alternative – We differ often lately, and this must be the last.
…………………………

We have walked very pleasantly – Perhaps this is the point at which our paths diverge – then [I] pass on singing Sue, and up the distant hill I journey on.”

Stanza 5

Line 17, “She suffered Me, for I had mourned”, probably refers to ED’s broken heart. EDLex defines “suffer” as “to bear a burden’, which implies ED personifies her “Heart”, which helped ED bear her burden of sadness. In Line 19, “My Witness — was the Crape (Black) I bore”, I prefer ED’s alternate word “Black” over “Crape” for two reasons. First, I like the alliteration: “Black I bore”. Even though EV always wore white clothing, “Black I bore” may refer to the 19^th century custom of wearing a black ribbon or pendant to indicate mourning. Second, the English word is not “crape”, but “crepe”, which rhymes with “grape” and derives from the French circumflexed “crêpe”, a type of crinkly cloth used for funeral dress (OED).

The clue to ED’s burden was the “Black” she wore in mourning. ED’s Heart had been broken by a “Dead” love relationship, probably following the departure of Charles Wadsworth for San Francisco in May, 1862.

Stanza 6

In Lines 23-24, I prefer ED’s alternate “Compact” because “Contract” sounds like legalese and “Silent” instead of “Wiser” for its alliteration: “Silent Sympathy”.

In previous summers, ED’s “Heart” had “stimulated” her eye to enjoy the beauty of spring and summer, but not this year. Instead, the pain of separation anxiety, a life-long curse ED “suffered”, blocked her usual springtime rejuvenation of inspiration (McDermott, J.T. 2001.Emily Dickinson Revisited – A Study of Periodicity in Her Work, Am J Psychiatry, Vol. 158:686–690.

For me, ED’s many alternative words, phrases, and lines in the manuscript of this poem (Fr780) are more complicated than those of any previous poem (Fr1-Fr779). It makes me wonder if ED’s fun-loving spirit delights in our fumbling because we’re mystified and keep coming back for more.

Fr780 with all changes and ED’s alternate words and phrases in parentheses:

The Birds reported from the South —
A News express to Me —
A spicy Charge, My little (Friends) —
But I am deaf — Today —

The Flowers — appealed — a timid Throng —
I reinforced the Door —
Go blossom for the Bees — I said —
And trouble Me — no More —

The Summer Grace, for Notice strove —
Remote — Her best Array —
The Heart — to stimulate the Eye
Refused too utterly —

At length, a Mourner, like Myself,
She drew away austere —
Her frosts to ponder — then it was
I (rose to comfort) Her —

She suffered Me, for I had mourned —
I offered Her no word —
My Witness — was the (Black) I bore —
Her — Witness — was Her Dead —

Thenceforward — We — together dwelt —
I never questioned Her
Our (Compact)
A (Silent) Sympathy

ED’s alternate words (in parentheses)

So much Summer
Me for showing
Illegitimate –
Would a Smile’s minute bestowing
Too exorbitant (extravagant, importunate)

To the Lady
With the Guinea(s)
Look – if she should know
Crumb of Mine
A Robin’s Larder
Would (Could) suffice to stow –

I prefer ED’s original word choice, “exorbitant”, in Line 5. In Line 7, I prefer ED’s monetary alternate, “Guineas”, because Line 5 introduced a financial term, “exorbitant” into the poem. The last line’s “Would” implies ED’s “Crumb” is enough, in her judgement, “to stow”. “Could” implies the “Crumb” would  suffice but, in ED’s judgement, isn’t necessarily preferable.

Franklin estimated ED copied ‘So much Summer’, F761, into Fascicle 34 about late 1863. We don’t know when she composed it, but we do know 1861-1862 were traumatic, productive years. She was sick and bedridden for a whole summer, probably 1861. In fall of 1861, Susan Dickinson sent ED a note: ”If you have suffered this past Summer I am sorry.” In April 1862, ED wrote Higginson: “I had a terror – since September – I could tell to none – and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground, because I am afraid –”

We have complete medical records for the Dickinson family, except for the years 1861 and 1862. No one has explained the complete absence for those two years. However, recovery from a botched abortion or a serious mental breakdown are two plausible explanations for their deletion (Shurr 1983; Cody 1971).

William H. Shurr. 1983. The Marriage of Emily Dickinson. University Press of Kentucky, 230 pp.

Cody, John. 1971 After Great Pain: The Inner Life of Emily Dickinson. Harvard University Press. 538 pp.

—————————————

ED had begged Sue for a smile before, in F735, ‘The Moon was but a Chin of Gold’:

“Her Lips of Amber never part –
But what must be the smile
Upon Her Friend she could confer
Were such Her silver will –“

In Lines 4-7 of ‘So much Summer’, ED again begs Sue for a small smile: “Would a Smile’s minute bestowing / Too exorbitant [be] // To the Lady / With the Guinea(s)”? That “minute” smile would be a “Crumb of Mine / A Robin’s Larder / Would suffice to stow”. ED referred to Sue as a “Robin” in ‘I have a Bird in spring’ [F4, 1854, Line 6].

If ‘So much Summer’ is about Sue, then what are we to make of Lines 1-3, and how are they connected to ED’s plea for a sympathetic smile? These opening lines, taken literally, are about “Me”, the poet, ED, who apparently is “showing / illegitimate” in her “Summer” frock and begging Sue for a “minute smile”. Occam’s Razor fails sometimes, but in the absence of compelling alternatives, these lines provide circumstantial evidence supporting Shurr’s 1983 hypothesis of ED’s pregnancy [Comment 1, F745, ‘Sweet Mountains’, TPB].

Mabel Todd wrote in her diary that Austin had told her that during the early years of their marriage, before Ned’s birth in June 1861, Sue had had three or four pregnancies “artificially terminated” (Longsworth 1984). If so, this shocking poem may be ED’s plea, not just for Sue’s sympathy, but for her empathy as well. And, if so, two questions: Why did ED leave such damning words in a poem, and why did Austin’s scissors spare this poem when he censored ED’s manuscripts after her death?

• Longsworth, Polly. 1984. Austin and Mabel. University of Massachusetts Press.

• Shurr, William H. 1983. The Marriage of Emily Dickinson. University of Kentucky Press, 230 pages; pp.170-188.

 

ED’s alternate words/phrases in parentheses.

On a Columnar Self—
How ample to rely
In Tumult—or Extremity—
How good the Certainty

That Lever cannot pry—
And Wedge cannot divide
Conviction—That Granitic Base—
Though None be on our Side—

Suffice Us—for a Crowd—
Ourself—and Rectitude—
And that Assembly (Companion)—not far off
From furthest (Faithful) Spirit (Good Man)—God—

I prefer all three of ED’s alternate words/phrases because they illustrate how ED refuses to be pidgeonholed into “atheist” or “deist”. In this poem, God is a “Companion” for the “Faithful Good Man”.

As Sherwood (1968) said:

“The Emily Dickinson revealed in her works is complex and inconsistent, often contradictory, moving from ecstasy to desperation, from a fervent faith to a deep suspicion and skepticism, from humility and submissiveness to defiance and scorn. She is blasphemous as often as devout, and in her poetry God is accused of petty vindictiveness and cold indifference as often as He is celebrated for benevolence or admired for His majesty.”

ED Lexicon defines “columnar” as “stony; rigid, like granite; similar to a marble pillar”, and ED’s poem fits that description.

Stanza 1 states ED’s quasi-religious belief that a stiff spine in times of “Tumult – or Extremity” rewards the true believer or disbeliever with “good” feelings of “Certainty”.

Stanza 2 reiterates ED’s belief in no uncertain terms: “Lever cannot pry – / And Wedge cannot divide / Conviction – That Granitic Base – / Though none be on our side –“. ED’s refusal at age 16 to stand and accept Christ as her savior, despite Mount Holyoke’s Headmistress’s exhortation in front of a class of schoolgirls, no doubt loomed large in ED’s mind while she composed this poem.

Stanza 2 closes with royal plural; “our” means “my”. ED has a history of speaking of herself in third person. Line 8 probably means “Though none be on my side”.

Stanza 3 continues royal plural in Lines 9-10; “Us” and “Ourself” probably mean “Myself”:

“Suffice Myself – for a Crowd –
Myself – and Rectitude -”.

In Line 12, ED pulls an ace from her pocket by adding “God” to her “Crowd”, forming a trio: “Myself”, “Rectitude”, and “God”. It’s always good to have God on your side. As Adam pointed out, she also suggested three alternative words for Lines 11 & 12: “Assembly” [Companion], “furthest” [Faithful], “Spirit” [Good Man].

Editors Johnson (1955) and Franklin (1998) decided to disregard alternative words in Stanza 3 and keep the royal plural. That wording confuses me. Does “Assembly” refer to “God” or to “Myself – and Rectitude”?

Inserting all three alternative words and converting royal plural to standard singular, Stanza 3 reads:

“Suffice Myself – for a Crowd –
Myself – and Rectitude -.
And that Companion – not far off
From Faithful Good Man – God –”

Now Stanza 3 makes sense; “Crowd” clearly consists of “Myself”, “Rectitude”, and “God”. For once, ED tells us what she means with her alternative words – or does she? ED’s coziness with God, “that Companion – not far off / From Faithful Good Man”, seems strange given their troubled relations. Maybe she’s just covering her agnostic bets.

Shira Wolosky (2000) asks a rhetorical question: “Is New England self-reliance, à la Emerson, a choice preferrable to traditional social interdependence or does it devolve into cold self-defeating stoniness?”

Her answer: “[W]e can see how desperate, and how self-defeating, this “Columnar Self” [is], for all its array of certain, granitic, language . . . . Posed almost frantically against tremendous, threatening forces — “Tumult,” “Extremity” — and assaultive intrusion — a “Wedge” that threatens to “divide” — this self stands in utter isolation, “None be on our side.” And the self’s rescue costs in fact the self itself: its liberty, its mobility, indeed consciousness itself — for here Dickinsonian selfhood is lapidary [stony], a downward metamorphosis from motive, sentient, conscious being into inorganic stone. What first appears, then, to be a declaration of absolute independence, emerges instead as a defensive, ambivalent contraction of selfhood, unto its own undoing.”

• Shira Wolosky. 2000. ‘Dickinson’s Emerson: A Critique of American Identity’. The Emily Dickinson Journal, 9(2):134-141

In my experience, adherence to “That Granitic Base” of a “Columnar Self” often “emerges instead as a defensive, ambivalent contraction of selfhood, unto its own undoing”, i.e., stolid stoicism.

Sherwood, W.R., 1968. Circumference and Circumstance, Columbia University Press.

Shira Wolosky. 2000. Dickinson’s Emerson: A Critique of American Identity. The Emily
Dickinson Journal, 9(2):134-141

ED’s alternate words in parentheses

Joy to have merited the Pain—
To merit the Release—
Joy to have perished every step—
To Compass Paradise—

Pardon—to look upon thy face—
With these old fashioned Eyes—
Better than new—could be—for that—
Though bought in Paradise—

Because they looked on thee before—
And thou hast looked on them—
Prove Me—My Hazel (swimming) Witnesses
The features are the same—

So fleet thou wert, when present—
So infinite—when gone—
An Orient’s Apparition—
Remanded of the Morn—

The Height I recollect—
‘Twas even with the Hills—
The Depth upon my Soul was notched—
As Floods—on Whites of Wheels—

To Haunt—till Time have dropped
His last Decade (slow Decades) away,
And Haunting actualize—to last
At least—Eternity—

Line 11: ED told Higginson her eyes were hazel, “like the sherry in the glass, that the guest leaves” [JL345, 1862-07-22]. I prefer the alternate “swimming” because she’s been crying. Line 22: I prefer ED’s alternate, “slow Decades” because ED expects to live several “slow Decades” before she dies and joins Wadsworth in Heaven. “His last decade” implies she must wait until the end of “Time”, which is not her intended meaning.

Especially for this poem, which ED  copied into Fascicle 36 “about the second half of 1863” (Franklin 1998), it’s important to know that:

“Emily Dickinson first went to Boston for eye treatment in February 1864 and stayed until November, followed by another treatment period in April 1865. She was being treated by Boston ophthalmologist Dr. Henry Willard Williams for an eye affliction that began the previous year [1863]. During these times away from her home in Amherst, she stayed with her cousins, Frances and Lavinia Norcross” (Google AI).   No wonder ED focuses so much on “old eyes and new eyes”; hers were failing.

ED’s best poems can be read at many levels, personal to universal. To see the universe in a blade of grass is a skill that requires a big mind. However, universalizing ‘Joy to have merited the Pain—’ eludes me, so here’s a biographical take, stanza by stanza, with my apologies to purists:

Stanza 1 sounds masochistic to me: “It feels so good when the beating ends”. ED Lex defines the verb “compass” as “achieve; arrive at”, so Lines 3-4, “Joy to have perished every step – / To Compass Paradise –”, translates for me “Since you left me, I’ve perished painfully every day, but when we meet in Paradise, that daily dying will be worthwhile”. Marianne Noble (1994) argues “that a broad undercurrent of masochistic imagery characterizes mid-nineteenth-century American sentimental fiction”, ED’s guilty pleasure, but that’s over my pay grade.

Stanzas 2-3 echo Master Letter 3 (Summer 1861): “Would Daisy disappoint you-no-she would’nt-Sir-it were comfort forever-just to look in your face, while you looked in mine – then I could play in the woods till Dark- till you take me where Sundown cannot find us -”. Master’s identity will likely elude proof, but ED’s most recent leading biographer concludes “To date, there is only one candidate who matches what we infer about the unknown [Master] . . . Reverend Charles Wadsworth” (Habegger 2002, p.504), as did Whicher (1939) and Sewall (1974)..

Stanzas 4-5 likely relive an 1860 invited visit to Homestead by Rev. Wadsworth. At the time, he was the superstar pastor of Philadelphia’s Arch Street Presbyterian Church, and ED had heard him preach in March 1855 when she was 24. Apparently, that sermon planted a seed of adoration, infatuation, and love that affected her until the day she died.

The poet and the preacher corresponded over the next five years, probably including Master Letter 1 (spring 1858; Franklin 1984). ED’s memory of that 1860 visit, faulty or not, was that Wadsworth assured her they would meet and marry in Heaven

Stanza 6 closes the poem: You will haunt me / Until Time’s “last Decade” / That haunting will last / “At least – Eternity”. Apparently, ED believed Wadsworth, literally.

As a child, ED’s conception of heaven began in uncertain agnosticism: “Maybe heaven exists”. By 1863 her conception probably was certain agnosticism: “We have no evidence heaven exists, but absence of evidence doesn’t prove heaven’s non-existence”. See F725, ‘Their Height in Heaven comforts not—’, especially ED’s last two lines:

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

We can’t assume ED was logical about her beliefs, as these two quotes suggest:

“The Emily Dickinson revealed in her works is complex and inconsistent, often contradictory, moving from ecstasy to desperation, from a fervent faith to a deep suspicion and skepticism, from humility and submissiveness to defiance and scorn. She is blasphemous as often as devout, and in her poetry God is accused of petty vindictiveness and cold indifference as often as He is celebrated for benevolence or admired for His majesty.”

Sherwood, W.R., Circumference and Circumstance. 1968.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”.

F. Scott Fitzgerald. February, 1936. ‘The Crack-Up’. Esquire magazine.

During summer 1860, while visiting his best friend, James Clark in Northampton, Wadsworth took the 12-mile train ride to Amherst for an invited visit with ED. For a superstar Philadelphia minister to take such an interest in her, an unpublished, unmarried, small town, 29-year-old poet, must have sent her brain spinning.

Reverend Wadsworth’s memory of that 1860 meeting and his feelings for ED will never be known. The only thing we know for certain is that during a 1939 interview, Wadworth’s youngest son, Dr. William S. Wadsworth, Coroner of Philadelphia, answered a question by an early biographer, George F. Whicher:

“Did your father ever speak of Emily Dickinson’s poems?”. Dr. Wadsworth replied, “He would not have cared for them. The poetry he admired was of a different order. . . . My father was not one to be unduly impressed by a hysterical young woman’s ravings” (Whicher 1949).

During late summer 1861 Wadsworth probably informed ED that he was considering a “remove” to San Francisco’s new Calvary Presbyterian Church. In May 1862 he and his family did move, and ED, prone to separation anxiety, sank into a painful mental maelstrom that lasted at least two years (L338 to Higginson, April 28, 1862, “I had a terror – since September – I could tell to none”) Perhaps ‘Joy to have merited the Pain’ (F739, 1863) was a stage of her recovery.

• Franklin, R. W. (ed.). 1984. The Master Letters of Emily Dickinson. Amherst College Press, Amherst, MA. 52 pp.
• Habegger, Alfred. 2002. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson, p.504
• Noble, Marianne. 1994. ‘“Joy to Have Merited the Pain”: The Masochistic Pleasures of the Sentimental Voice’. Columbia University Dissertation. 448 pp.
• Sewall, Richard B. 1974. The Life of Emily Dickinson. Paperback edition. 1998. Harvard U. Press.
• Whicher, G. F. 1938. A Critical Biography of Emily Dickinson; A Special Edition with an Introduction by Richard B. Sewall, Amherst College Press, 1992.
• Whicher, G. F. 1949. Pursuit of the Overtakeless. The Nation. Issue 2. Pp. 14-15.

No Other can reduce Our
Mortal Consequence
Like the remembering it be Nought –
A Period from hence –

But Contemplation for
Cotemporaneous Nought
Our Mutual Fame – that haply
Jehovah – recollect –

No Other can exalt Our
Mortal Consequence
Like the remembering it exist –
A Period from hence –

Invited from Itself
To the Creator’s House –
To tarry an Eternity –
His – shortest Consciousness –

To begin, ED composed three variants of F738 (A, B, C). DeGraff (2024) presents Variant A, and Johnson (1955) and Franklin (1999) published Variant B, which is the version she sent Sue in 1865. Here are the three variants for comparison:

Variant A    Second half 1863    Fascicle 36

No Other can reduce Our
Mortal Consequence
Like the remembering it be Nought –
A Period from hence –

But Contemplation for
Cotemporaneous Nought –
Our Mutual Fame – that haply
Jehovah – recollect –

No Other can exalt (reduce) Our
Mortal Consequence
Like the remembering it exist –
A period from hence –

Invited from Itself
To the Creator’s House –
To tarry an Eternity –
His – shortest Consciousness –

Variant B  1865  To Sue

“No Other can reduce
Our Mortal Consequence
Like the remembering it be Nought (exist) –
A Period from hence –
But Contemplation for
Cotemporaneous Nought –
Our only competition
Jehovah’s estimate

Emily”

Variant C   1865

No other can reduce
Our mortal Consequence
Like the remembering it be nought
A period from hence
But Contemplation for
Cotemporaneous nought (Nought)-
Our mutual fame, that haply   (Our only Competition)
Jehovah recollect   (Jehovah’s Estimate)

Franklin (1998) suggested that “The placement of “Our” at the end of line 1 [in Variant A] may have been a copying error [by ED], not repeated thereafter [in Variants B & C]”.

ED’s Line 2 in all variants (including emended Variant A), “Our Mortal Consequence”, can be read at least two ways, as her poems or as her soul. ED posits her poems may amount to “Nought – / A Period from hence”, but there’s nothing coy about ED suggesting God might disagree: “Our only competition / Jehovah’s estimate”. On occasion, ED feigned she did not care about fame, but this poem (Variant B) belies her posturing. She really hoped she had Jehovah on her side, and she did.

As to “Our Mortal Consequence”, that could mean her poems (mortal consequence = extant poems), or capitalized “Mortal Consequence” may mean her soul, what’s left over after her physical body rots in Amherst’s West Cemetery. ED seems to care more about her poems’ immortality than about her soul’s, so my vote is that “Our Mortal Consequence” means her poems.

In 2022, Christiane Miller published a 3-paragraph history of ED’s editing of ‘No Other can reduce’ in her ‘Oxford Handbook of Emily Dickinson’ (excerpt from Page 226):

“Dickinson copied “No Other can reduce Our / Mortal Consequence” (M370 and M462, Fr738, J982) around the second half of 1863 and included it in a fascicle now numbered 36. Around 1865, she sent the first two stanzas of this four-stanza poem to Susan, without contextualizing comment, rewriting the last two lines of the second stanza and moving “Our” from the end of line 1 to the beginning of line 2, making a more conventionally metrical opening. In this version, lines 7–8 read: “Our single Competition / Jehovah’s Estimate.” In the fascicle copy, they read: “Our Mutual Fame – that haply / Jehovah – recollect –”.

“This poem is particularly interesting because around the time she sent two stanzas to Susan, Dickinson made a second fair copy to retain, which—like the version to Susan—both included only the first two stanzas and altered the line break in the opening lines (M 462). This copy maintained the fascicle version of lines 7–8 (with different capitalization and punctuation) but included the final lines sent to Susan as alternatives, slightly revised, below a long, drawn line. In this version, the poem ends: “Our mutual fame, that haply / Jehovah recollect [line across the page] Our only Competition / Jehovah’s Estimate.” (see Figure 13.1).

“No Other can reduce Our” was completed as a poem, without alternatives and apparently without thought of a specific audience, before it was circulated—as Franklin’s numbering indicates (Fr738A). When Dickinson returned to the poem around two years later, it is unclear whether she first rewrote it to retain, with an imagined alternative, or first sent a revised version to Susan, then revised it again, keeping the (slightly altered) version circulated as part of her record.

Characteristically, Franklin lists the copy sent to Susan as 738B and the unbound sheet (“Set”) copy as 738C. If Dickinson made the unbound sheet copy before sending the stanzas to Susan, it could imply that the version circulated was her final word on the poem, or that the copy to Susan constituted one manifestation of what she might do with the now-revised poem. If the circulated version came first, then it indeed might have been a trial run, as Franklin surmises, but in this case the trial led to no decisive conclusion and even its alternative lines were revised for retention.”

• Cristanne Miller. 2022. Writing for Posterity: Editing, Evidence, and Sequence in Dickinson’s Composition and Circulation of Poems, pp. 217-234 [in] Miller, Cristanne; Sánchez-Eppler, Karen, Eds. ‘The Oxford Handbook of Emily Dickinson’, Oxford University Press, Kindle Edition.

In his ‘Notes on Emily Dickinsons’ poems’ (no longer available on the web), David Preest informed us “This stanza [Stanza 1, Variant A], gloomily stating that ‘No Other [thing] can reduce/our mortal Consequence’ like knowing that soon we shall not exist,’ was in the original version of the poem the first of a pair of stanzas of eight lines each {Preest errs, Variant A manuscript is four quatrains]. The second stanza triumphantly proclaimed that ‘No other [thing] can exalt/our mortal Consequence’ like the belief that we shall exist again. Emily’s final version, two years later, omitted the second stanza.”

I much prefer ED’s four-quatrain Variant A because of its contrast between Stanzas 1-2 and Stanzas 3-4. It tells a more complete story than Variants B or C.