All Poems

837.1864.I make His Crescent fill or lack—

I make His Crescent fill or lack—
His Nature is at Full
Or Quarter—as I signify—
His Tides—do I control—

He holds superior in the Sky
Or gropes, at my Command
Behind inferior Clouds—or round
A Mist’s slow Colonnade—

But since We hold a Mutual Disc—
And front a Mutual Day—
Which is the Despot, neither knows—
Nor Whose—the Tyranny—

 

Pronoun identities: “I” is the Sun and “He/Him” is the Moon.

If these identities are correct, this poem is unusual. I can’t remember a single other ED poem where “I” means anything but ED/Poet.

Here’s my interpretation of the poem, stanza by stanza:

1. I make the Moon’s crescent wax or wane. I command whether the Moon is full or quarter. I control the tides.
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2. I also command whether the Moon is superior in the night sky or struggles with clouds and mist that block his face from view.
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3. But since We have the same round face: a full Moon at night and a bright orb during the day, which of us is the despot, which creates the fear?

PS. “Day” must mean one 24-hour day because both Sun and Moon “face” it.

PPS. Adam’s explication of this poem on TPB is excellent, but it ends without explaining the last line: “Nor Whose—the Tyranny”. Does the Sun tyrannize the Moon, or the Moon tyrannize the Sun? Is one of them really a “Despot”?

836.1864.Color — Caste — Denomination —

Color — Caste — Denomination —
These — are Time’s Affair —
Death’s diviner Classifying
Does not know they are —

As in sleep — All Hue forgotten —
Tenets — put behind —
Death’s large—Democratic fingers
Rub away the Brand —

If Circassian — He is careless —
If He put away
Chrysalis of Blonde—or Umber —
Equal Butterfly —

They emerge from His Obscuring —
What Death — knows so well —
Our minuter intuitions —
Deem unplausible —

My interpretation of each stanza, ED speaking:

1. Color — Caste — Denomination —
   These — are Time’s Affair —
   Death’s diviner Classifying
   Does not know they are —

I believe a person’s skin color, social class, and religion don’t matter. They are determined by one’s parents and ancestors. After we die, death will decide our fate, and death doesn’t see these distinctions.

2. As in sleep — All Hue forgotten —
   Tenets — put behind —
   Death’s large—Democratic fingers
   Rub away the Brand —

I also believe that democratic death doesn’t care about skin color, social class, and religion. It erases these superficial distinctions.

3. If Circassian — He is careless —
   If He put away
   Chrysalis of Blonde—or Umber —
   Equal Butterfly — (enjambed with next line.

I believe death deals the same with butterflies, Death doesn’t care if they’re white or blond or dark brown. They emerge from their chrysalises as equals in death’s eyes.

4. They emerge from His Obscuring —
   What Death — knows so well —
   Our minuter intuitions —
   Deem unplausible —
   
   Our minute human classifications emerge from death’s denial as unplausible, a fact death knows so well.

004.1854.I have a Bird in spring

I prefer ED’s alternate phrase in Line 7.

I have a Bird in spring
Which for myself doth sing —
The spring decoys.
And as the summer nears —
And as the Rose appears,
Robin is gone. 

(Then will) I not repine
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown —
Learneth beyond the sea
Melody new for me
And will return. 

Fast in a safer hand
Held in a truer Land
Are mine —
And though they now depart
Tell I my doubting heart
They’re thine. 

In a serener Bright,
In a more golden light
I see
Each little doubt and fear
Each little discord here
Removed. 

Then will I not repine,
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown
Shall in a distant tree
Bright melody for me
Return.

………………………………………

My interpretation of F4:

003.1853.On this wondrous sea – sailing silently –

Emily Dickinson (ED) gave Sue a copy of this poem in March 1853.

On this wondrous sea – Sailing silently –
Ho! Pilot! Ho!
Knowest thou the shore
Where no breakers roar –
Where the storm is o’er?

In the silent West
Many – the sails – at rest –
The Anchors fast.
Thither I pilot thee –
Land! Ho! Eternity!
Ashore at last!

…………………………………

My interpretation by stanzas:

Sweet Sue, we have a wonderful relationship. It’s as if we are together in a small sailboat, silently sailing. Do you know a shore where no breakers roar and the storm is o’er?

Dearest Emily, in the silent west many sails rest, their anchors fast, and that’s where I’m taking you. Look, I see land! It’s called Eternity! We’re home at last!

001.1850.Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine

Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,
Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!

Oh the Earth was made for lovers, for damsel, and hopeless swain,
For sighing, and gentle whispering, and unity made of twain.
All things do go a courting, in earth, or sea, or air,
God hath made nothing single but thee in His world so fair!
The bride, and then the bridegroom, the two, and then the one,
Adam, and Eve, his consort, the moon, and then the sun;
The life doth prove the precept, who obey shall happy be,
Who will not serve the sovereign, be hanged on fatal tree.
The high do seek the lowly, the great do seek the small,
None cannot find who seeketh, on this terrestrial ball;
The bee doth court the flower, the flower his suit receives,
And they make merry wedding, whose guests are hundred leaves;
The wind doth woo the branches, the branches they are won,
And the father fond demandeth the maiden for his son.
The storm doth walk the seashore humming a mournful tune,
The wave with eye so pensive, looketh to see the moon,
Their spirits meet together, they make their solemn vows,
No more he singeth mournful, her sadness she doth lose.
The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride,
Night unto day is married, morn unto eventide;
Earth is a merry damsel, and heaven a knight so true,
And Earth is quite coquettish, and beseemeth in vain to sue.
Now to the application, to the reading of the roll,
To bringing thee to justice, and marshalling thy soul:
Thou art a human solo, a being cold, and lone,
Wilt have no kind companion, thou reap’st what thou hast sown.
Hast never silent hours, and minutes all too long,
And a deal of sad reflection, and wailing instead of song?
There’s Sarah, and Eliza, and Emeline so fair,
And Harriet, and Susan, and she with curling hair!
Thine eyes are sadly blinded, but yet thou mayest see
Six true, and comely maidens sitting upon the tree;
Approach that tree with caution, then up it boldly climb,
And seize the one thou lovest, nor care for space, or time!
Then bear her to the greenwood, and build for her a bower,
And give her what she asketh, jewel, or bird, or flower—
And bring the fife, and trumpet, and beat upon the drum—
And bid the world Goodmorrow, and go to glory home!

………………………………………………………………………………….

Larry BJuly 24, 2022

Elbridge Bowdoin, Edward Dickinson’s junior law partner (1847-1855), was about the same age (mid-20s) as Benjamin Newton, Edward’s intern and ED’s mentor, but Newton was married and Bowdoin was not. Bowdoin, a lifelong bachelor, kept this Valentine poem for 40 years. Given its boldly sensual nature, we know where Emily’s mind was at age 19. However, how many Hallmark Valentine cards have you ever seen with a line like this: “The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride”? ED had more than romantic love on her mind.

Larry B January 3, 2025

This early Valentine poem tells us that Susan Gilbert, an orphaned newcomer to Amherst, had joined ED’s inner clique of friends by 4 March 1850. Their acquaintance began fall 1847 when Susan enrolled for a semester at Amherst Academy. Their romantic love probably began summer 1850 (L181, January 1855: “I love you as dearly, Susie, as when love first began, on the step at the front door, and under the Evergreens, and it breaks my heart sometimes, because I do not hear from you.”)

836.1864.Color — Caste — Denomination —

Color — Caste — Denomination —
These — are Time’s Affair —
Death’s diviner Classifying
Does not know they are —

As in sleep — All Hue forgotten —
Tenets — put behind —
Death’s large—Democratic fingers
Rub away the Brand —
.
If Circassian — He is careless —
If He put away
Chrysalis of Blonde—or Umber —
Equal Butterfly —
.
They emerge from His Obscuring —
What Death — knows so well —
Our minuter intuitions —
Deem unplausible —
.
.
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In a genetic sense that ED could not know, not just humans share death, but every individual organism: plant, animal, bacterium, fungus, and even, in a sense, virus, with their single-stranded genetic code of RNA. Death’s “Democratic Fingers” end existence for every “individual” of every “species”.
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What we know now is that ED’s obsession with individual human “Death” was completely anthropocentric. What really matters is transmission of genetic code from each parent generation to its descendants. Genetic codes are “immortal” in a sense, but their “immortality” does not mean they stay the same; they change continually by natural selection and its consequence, evolution.

We organisms pass from existence to non-existence. Death of an individual organism doesn’t matter, so long as it leaves at least one copy of its DNA in the next generation. The only complete failure of a DNA or RNA molecule is extinction of its “species”. If we humans cause that extinction, we have committed a biocentric sin. Of course, we humans may intentionally cause extinction of a pathogen “species” like smallpox for our own anthropocentric benefit, but if we do we have intentionally committed a biocentric sin for a good reason.
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All of this is not to say that ED’s poems don’t matter. We love their rhythm and rhyme, their sound and sense. When we enjoy a poem, biology doesn’t matter. We can always learn biology later, when we aren’t reading ED’s poems.