ED-LarryB

 

834.1864.Fitter to see Him, I may be

ED included ten (10) alternate words (Lines 4, 8, 9, 10, 16, 20, 21, 26, 27, and 28). I prefer her alternates in Lines 4, 8, 16, and 28 and her original words in Lines 9, 10 (spelling corrected), 20, 21, 26, and 27. Here is F834, with my preferred alternate words in parentheses:

1. Fitter to see Him, I may be
   For the long Hindrance — Grace — to Me —
   With Summers, and with Winters, grow,
   Some passing Year — A (charm) bestow
   .
2. To make Me fairest of the Earth —
   The Waiting — then — will seem so worth
   I shall impute with half a pain
   The blame that I was (common) — then —
   .
3. Time to anticipate His Gaze —
   Its first — Delight — and then — Surprise —
   The turning o’er and o’er my face
   For Evidence it be the Grace —
   .
4. He left behind One Day — So less
   He seek Conviction, That — be This —
   .
5. I only must not grow so new
   He’ll mistake — and ask for me
   Of me — when first unto the Door
   I go — to Elsewhere go no more —
   .
6. I only must not change so fair
   He’ll sigh — “The Other — She — is Where?”
   The Love, tho’, will array me right
   I shall be perfect — in His sight —
   .
7. If He perceive the other Truth —
   Upon an Excellenter Youth —
   .
8. How sweet I shall not lack in Vain —
   But gain — thro’ loss — Through Grief— obtain —
   The Beauty that reward Him best —
   The Beauty of (Belief) — at Rest —

 

My interpretation of F834, stanza by stanza:

1.  If Wadsworth ever returns to Amherst, I’ll be fitter to meet Him because of my long wait for Him to return. Waiting may feel like a hindrance, but during that time, God will give me grace. Passing seasons and passing years will bestow on me a new trait; (enjambed)
   .
2. they will make me fairest of the Earth. The waiting, then, will seem so worthwhile. I half attribute my emotional pain to Wadsworth for choosing to visit me in 1860. Nevertheless, I hope He returns.
   .
3. The wait has given me time to anticipate His gaze, its first delight and then his surprise as he turns over and over in his mind my face as he remembers it. He’ll wonder if my transformation has been by the grace of God and search for evidence that I’m the same person he (enjambed)
   .
4. left behind that summer day in 1860. My face will be so different that he’ll search it for evidence that that face is this face.
   .
5. I only must not grow so fair that He’ll think he’s talking to a different person and ask for me of me when first I go to the door. No, I’ll welcome Him and never afterward leave His side.
   .
6. I only must not change so fair that He’ll sigh, “The other ED, where is she, where?” Our love, though, will array me right; I shall be perfect in His sight.
   .
7. If He decides that I am not ED, but rather a younger, prettier woman than he remembers, that’s okay with me because He will bestow his love on me but think he’s loving a prettier youth.
   .
8. And even if that happens, how sweet that I shall not lack his love but gain, through loss, through grief, the beauty that he likes best, the beauty of belief, at rest.
   .
   .

This poem is ED’s wishful imagination.

833.1864.Pain — expands the Time —

Alternate words in Lines 2, 7, 8 – I prefer ED’s original word, “coil”, in Line 2 and her alternate words, “Triplets” and “Flit” in Lines 7 & 8 (emended).

Pain — expands the Time —
Ages (coil) within
The minute Circumference
Of a single Brain —

Pain contracts — the Time —
Occupied with Shot
(Triplets) of Eternities
(Flit) [by] as [if] they were not [eternities].—

 

EDLex, Definitions 4 & 6 of “Shot”: “gunshot flak” [incoming miniballs].
EDLex Definition 1 of “Pain”: “Emotional agony”.

 

My literal interpretation of Fr833, 1864, ‘Pain — expands the Time’:

Pain expands time: while you’re waiting in your trench for a rebel attack, hours drag by.

Pain contracts time: when rebels scream their rebel yell and charge your trench, and miniballs whiz by your head, hours pass like seconds.

 

My metaphorical interpretation of Fr833, 1864, ‘Pain — expands the Time’:

1. Emotional agony makes one minute feel like hours. In that one minute, entire ages coil in my tortured brain.
2. In “late 1861” when I composed ‘There came a Day at Summer’s full’ (Fr325), I was remembering that “summer day” in 1860 when Wadsworth came to visit me in Amherst. My emotional agony contracted the hours I spent with him to minutes. As I said in ‘There came a Day’ (Stanza 5):

“The Hours [of that summer day in 1860] slid fast—as Hours will—
Clutched tight—by [our] greedy hands—
So—faces [Wadsworth’s and mine] on two Decks—look back—
Bound to opposing Lands [Amherst, MA, and San Francisco, CA] —”

832.1864.’Tis Sunrise — Little Maid — Hast Thou

10 April 2026
No alternate words

‘Tis Sunrise — Little Maid — Hast Thou
No Station in the Day?
‘Twas not thy wont, to hinder so —
Retrieve thine industry —

‘Tis Noon — My little Maid —
Alas — and art thou sleeping yet?
The Lily — waiting to be Wed —
The Bee — Hast thou forgot?

My little Maid — ‘Tis Night — Alas
That Night should be to thee
Instead of Morning — Had’st thou broached
Thy little Plan to Die —
Dissuade thee, if I could not, Sweet,
I might have aided — thee —

My interpretation of ‘’Tis Sunrise — Little Maid — (Fr832)

1. ‘Tis Sunrise — Little Maid — Hast Thou
   No Station in the Day?
   ‘Twas not thy wont, to hinder so —
   Retrieve thine industry —
   .
   I’m your father, Emily. It’s sunrise and you have bread to make and poems to write! It’s not like you to sleep so late. It’s time to rise and shine!

 

2. It’s Noon — My little Maid —
   Alas — and art thou sleeping yet?
   The Lily — waiting to be Wed —
   The Bee — Hast thou forgot?
   .
   It’s noon, Emily! It’s me, your father, again, and you’ve slept all morning!! What’s wrong? Why are you still in bed? The lilies in your garden are waiting to be fertilized by the bees. Why have you forgotten your garden and your poems?

 

3. My little Maid — ‘Tis Night — Alas
   That Night should be to thee
   Instead of Morning — Had’st thou broached
   Thy little Plan to Die —
   Dissuade thee, if I could not, Sweet,
   I might have aided — thee —
   .

Emily, I’m your soul. You’re dead and I’m really sad. If only you had talked to me about your suicide plans, I might have dissuaded you. If I could not dissuade you, Emily, I might have helped you to do it.

”””””””””””’

As background for my interpretation, here is an early poem about ED’s father waking her at 3:00 AM each morning by knocking on her bedroom door. Apparently, in 1858, ED and her sister, Vinnie, were expected to start morning chores and cook breakfast. The poem below (Fr35, 1858) is about a deal ED brokered with her father to hire a maid so that she could have more time to write poetry:

35.1858.Sleep is supposed to be

Sleep is supposed to be
By souls of sanity
The shutting of the eye.

Sleep is the station grand
Down wh’, on either hand
The hosts of witness stand!

Morn is supposed to be
By people of degree
The breaking of the Day.

Morning has not occurred!

That shall Aurora be—
East of Eternity—
One with the banner gay—
One in the red array—
That is the break of Day!

Here is an excerpt about Fr35 (1958) from Susan Kornfeld’s 2011 explication of ‘Sleep is supposed to be’ on the ‘The Prowling Bee’ blog

https://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/2011/07/f-35-1848.html

“[T]his poem was described by Dickinson in a letter (JL198) to her friends the Hollands as a note to her father who apparently used to knock on her door before daylight to wake her up. [ED] prefaced the poem by writing:

To my Father –
 to whose untiring efforts in my behalf, I am indebted for my morning hours
       – viz – 3.AM to 12. PM. These grateful lines are inscribed by his aff. Daughter.’ (L198)”

In 1854, in a letter to the same “Hollands”, she mentions her father “rapping” on her door to wake her :

To Dr. and Mrs. J. G. Holland, 26 November 1854 (JL175)

“Dear Friends,

. . . When father rapped on my door to wake me this morning, I [dreamed I] was walking with you in the most wonderful garden, and helping you pick- roses, and though we gathered with all our might, the basket was never full.

Affectionately, Emily

……………………………………………

831.1864.Till Death—is narrow Loving—

Till Death—is narrow Loving—
The scantest Heart extant
Will hold you till your privilege
Of Finiteness—be spent—

But He whose loss procures you
Such Destitution that
Your Life too abject for itself
Thenceforward imitate—

Until—Resemblance perfect—
Yourself, for His pursuit
Delight of Nature—abdicate—
Exhibit Love—somewhat—

My interpretation of ‘Till Death—is narrow Loving—’, Fr831:

Stanza 1

Till Death—is narrow Loving—
The scantest Heart extant
Will hold you till your privilege
Of Finiteness—be spent—

 

To love someone “till death” is “narrow loving”. Even the “scantiest heart”, the heart least capable of love, can keep a you in a relationship “Till Death”. All you have to do is stay together. If married, don’t divorce even if time proves you and your partner incompatible. But prolonging unresolved incompatibility often results in unhappy or even bitter final years “till your privilege / Of Finiteness—be spent—”. If married, the older you get, the more difficult it is to separate because of children, grandchildren, and finances.

 

Stanza 2

But He whose loss procures you
Such Destitution that
Your Life too abject for itself
Thenceforward imitate— (enjambed with Stanza 3)

ED hopelessly loved Wadsworth, and he moved to San Francisco in May 1862. Her life felt “Destitute”. ED believed when Wadsworth visited her in 1860, he had promised they could meet and marry in Heaven, but she didn’t want to wait that long to see him. Her life felt “too abject for itself”. “Thenceforward” she would “imitate” (enjambed with Stanza 3) Wadsworth by following his exhortations in his sermons.

It’s significant that after Wadsworth left the east coast, ED felt horrible terror, as she told Higginson in JL261, dated April 25, 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. “

She could either commit suicide (see Fr305 below) or sing poems like this one, ‘Till Death—is narrow Loving’. ED chose to sing poems, but she still worshiped Wadsworth. .  and tried to emulate the exhortations

It’s also significant that Eliza Coleman, ED’s second cousin and close friend, lived in Philadelphia, attended Wadsworth’s  Arch Street Presbyterian Church, and took ED to hear his sermon in late March of 1855. Eliza knew ED had strong feelings for Wadsworth and mailed her copies of his sermons until 1862. Presumably, ED tried to imitate his admonishings (enjambed) . . . .

 

Stanza 3

Until—Resemblance perfect—
Yourself, for His pursuit
Delight of Nature—abdicate—
Exhibit Love—somewhat—

. . . . Until she perfected a “Resemblance” to him in her life. Sadly, in her obsessive attempt to live his sermons’ exhortations, ED “abdicate[d]” her former “Delight of Nature”. She had hoped her imitation, her sacrifices for her imagined marriage to Wadsworth, “Exhibited Love” for him. Sadly, she knew she was only fooling herself, hence the final “somewhat”.

 305.1862.What if I say I shall not wait!

 What if I say I shall not wait!
What if I burst the fleshly Gate—
And pass Escaped—to thee!

What if I file this Mortal—off—
See where it hurt me—That’s enough—
And wade in Liberty!

They cannot take me—any more!
Dungeons can call—and Guns implore
Unmeaning—now—to me—

As laughter—was—an hour ago—
Or Laces—or a Travelling Show—
Or who died—yesterday!

. . . . . . . . . .

Billy Collins had this to say about poetry fans like me who want to know the historical seed that gestated into a poem, in this case Emily Dickinson’ poems:

 

“INTRODUCTION TO POETRY

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.”

 

I think Collins (1988) overstates his case, but his poem is delightful.

William James Collins (1941- ) is an American poet who served as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003.^[1] He was a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York for 30 years, retiring in 2016.

Billy Collins, 1988, The Apple that Astonished Paris, University of Arkansas Press.

830.1864.The Admirations—and Contempts—of time—

The Admirations—and Contempts—of time—
Show justest—through an Open Tomb—
The Dying—as it were a Height
Reorganizes Estimate
And what We saw not
We distinguish clear—
And mostly—see not
What We saw before—

‘Tis Compound Vision—
Light—enabling Light—
The Finite—furnished
With the Infinite—
Convex—and Concave Witness—
Back—toward Time
And forward—
Toward the God of Him—

My interpretation of the two stanzas:

After I die, the admirations and contempts of time will be “justest”. Then my readers will reorganize their estimates of my poems’ worth, and what was obscure before my death will afterward make sense.

Each generation of readers enlightens the next on the meanings of my poems, and they, in turn, enlighten the following generation to see ever deeper, compounding understanding. Each generation’s vision is finite, but their ultimate vision is infinite. That infinite vision bears witness in space, both outward and inward, and in time, both backward and forward, toward the God of Him.

 

ED had someone special in mind when she capitalized that last “Him”. She reserved capitalized pronouns for only God, Jesus, and Charles Wadsworth. Clearly, “Him” is not God, and the context of the poem doesn’t suggest Jesus, leaving us with Wadsworth. If so, who was the God of Wadsworth? ED seems to suggest that she, in her poems, and he, in his sermons, were converging on the same God.

 

The word “justest” is ED at her finest, an original adjective of superlative degree. I could not find “justest” in any dictionary.

829.1864.Between My Country — and the Others —

There are no alternate words in Fr829:

1. Between My Country — and the Others —
2. There is a Sea —
3. But Flowers — negotiate between us —
4. As Ministry.

 

My interpretation of Fr829:

Between my home, “Homestead”, and Sue’s home, “Evergreens”, there is a meadow of grass and wildflowers and a footpath about 100 yards long:

1. Between My Country — and the Others —
2. There is a Sea —

Sue and I share our love of poetry by sending my poems back and forth by messengers, either our hired housekeepers or by Sue’s children. First, I send the poem to her, and she replies with her comments on the poems:

3. But Flowers — negotiate between us —
4. As Ministry.

Usually when I interpret a poem, I start with the literal first level, then dig deeper for universality. Continuing with the digging metaphor, a good poem has at least one level below the literal, which we label “second level”, even though we are digging downward. This is confusing because an elevator goes up to get to the second level.

For me, the words we read on the page comprise the second level of meaning and our job as readers is to guess their literal meaning, so here are five (5) words that we must interpret in reverse: “Country”, “Others”, “Sea”, “Flowers”, and “Ministry”. (Lest my quotation-mark punctuation confuses, I prefer British rules, which put periods and commas outside quotation marks when they logically belong there.)

1. “My Country” means “Myself” or “Me”. Not including first words in lines, ED capitalized Myself and Me many times in her poems, e.g., Fr14 (last line), Fr255, Fr273, Fr310, Fr332, Fr426 (Line 1), Fr455, Fr481 (twice), Fr553, Fr570, and many more.
   .
2. Line 1 in this poem (Fr829), “Between My Country — and the Others”, leaves us wondering, If “My Country” is ED or her home, “Homestead”, who are “the Others”? My immediate guess is Sue and Austin, who live in their newly built home, “Evergreens”. “Between” the two houses is 100 yards of meadow. But “Others” may also include anyone who reads ED’s poems.
   .
3. In ED’s poem that meadow is a “Sea” of grass and wildflowers. In an 1858 poem, ED told us “One Sister [Vinnie] have I in the house – / And one [Sue] a hedge away”. ED neglected to tell us that “a hedge away” meant 100 yards “Between” Homestead and Evergreens. And if “Others” is anyone who reads her poems, then the “Sea” is the literal or metaphorical distance from Homestead to wherever the reader happens to be.
   .
4. That meadow may be full of grass and wildflowers, but in this poem (Fr 829), “Flowers” probably means “Poems”, which “negotiate” between Sue and ED, especially during their 15-year hiatus when ED did not step foot into “Evergreens”.
   .
5. Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines “Ministry” as “A government department headed by a minister; a departmental minister together with his or her associated staff; [or] the building occupied by a government department.” (Def, 1.5.c.)”. Ministers often personally carried important letters from one country to another. I suppose the word “Ministry” in the poem could be the employees or children that carried the poems back and forth across the “Sea” of meadow.

 

Historical perspective: Sue summarized her relationship with ED in a poem she wrote about 1891, five years after ED died:

1. Minstrel of the passing days
2. Sing me the song of all the ways
3. That snare the soul in the October haze
4. Song of the dark glory of the hills
5. When dyes are frightened to dull hues
6. Of all the gaudy shameless tints
7. That fire the passions of the prince
8. Strangling vines clasping their Cleopatras
9. Closer than Antony’s embrace
10. Whole rims of haze in pink
11. Horizons be as if new worlds hew
12. Shaping off our common quest –

ED was the minstrel who sang songs (sent poems):

2. “. . . . of all the ways
3. That snare the soul in the October haze”

As young women, Sue and ED read Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ together, with ED reading the part of Antony and Sue Cleopatra. In Fr829, ED’s poems sang:

6. “Of all the gaudy shameless tints
7. That fire the passions of the prince”.

The reason the two did not meet in person was that Sue felt strangled by ED’s neediness for love:

8. Strangling vines clasping their Cleopatras
9. Closer than Antony’s embrace

Sue recognized ED’s genius and understood her poems:

11. Horizons be as if new worlds hew
12. Shaping off our common quest –

Their “common quest” was their shared love of poetry.

827.1864.All forgot for recollecting

I prefer ED’s original words and phrase (Lines 1, 5, 7, 16), line-by-line:

1. All forgot for (through) recollecting
2. Just a paltry One—
3. All forsook, for just a Stranger’s
4. New accompanying—
   .
5. Grace of Rank, and Grace of Fortune (Grace of Rank — and — Grace of Fortune)
6. Less accounted than
7. An unknown esteem (content) possessing—
8. Estimate— who can—
   .
9. Home effaced— her faces dwindled—
10. Nature— altered small—
11. Sun— if shone— or storm— if shattered—
12. Overlooked I all—
    .
13. Dropped— my fate— a timid Pebble
14. In thy bolder Sea—
15. Ask me —Sweet— if I regret it—
16. Prove (Ask) myself— of Thee—

“One” (Line 2) is a personal pronoun referring to a person or entity, mortal or immortal. Its capitalization indicates that “One”, whoever “One” is, is important to ED: God, Jesus, Sue, or Reverend Charles Wadsworth. The context of this poem rules out God and Jesus, and Sue is not a stranger . By elimination, “One” is Charles Wadsworth. This understood referent of “One” explains why “Stranger’s” (Line 3) is capitalized: the stranger is Wadsworth.

My interpretation of Fr827, ‘All forgot for recollecting’, verse-by-verse:

1. I have forgotten all except One: Charles Wadsworth. I have forsaken all my friends. All I think about is Reverend Wadsworth.
   .
2. Grace of rank and fortune is less important than a mysterious esteem Wadsworth possesses. Who knows whence that esteem comes.
   .
3. Home forgotten, familiar faces fade; nature shrinks, sun and storm shrivel. I overlook them all.
   ‘
4. I drop my fate, a timid pebble in your bolder sea. Ask me, Sweet, if I regret it, I’ll prove I don’t to Thee.

. . . . . . . . . .

ED Lexicon defines “paltry” as an adjective that means “ragged; shabby; tattered; unkempt; impoverished; mean; of low station; insignificant; unimportant; small; trifling, trite; banal; commonplace; ordinary”. These pejorative adjectives don’t fit Reverend Wadsworth. However, reading Line 2 differently, ED could intend “Just a paltry” to mean “Except just”, which makes sense in the context of Stanza 1 and of the entire poem.