ED-LarryB

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)

“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

780.1863.The Birds reported from the South —

ED copied this poem into Fascicle 37 about late 1863 (Franklin 1998)

ED’s original poem with alternative words and phrases in parentheses.:

The Birds reported from the South –
A News express to Me –
A spicy Charge, My little Posts (friends)-
But I am deaf – To day – (you must go away)

The Flowers – appealed – a timid Throng –
I reinforced (only sealed) the Door –
Go blossom to the Bees – I said –
And trouble (harass) 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 (rose to comfort ) 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 (walked)-
She – never questioned Me –(I – never questioned Her – )
Nor I – Herself – (Nor She – Myself –)
Our Contract (Compact)
A Wiser (Wordless, silent, speechless) Sympathy

The capitalized “Her” in Stanzas 1,4,5,and 6 clues us that the female gender is camouflage and the poem is really about Reverend Charles Wadsworth, the only name other than “God” that ED honored with capitalized pronouns. He was from Philadelphia, 250 miles south of Amherst (Line 1). ED felt abandoned when he moved to San Francisco in May 1862 and blamed it on him but later learned he moved because his Arch Street Presbyterian congregation would not tolerate his belief that the Bible condoned slavery. The “Crape” in Stanza 5 is camouflage for “White”. Beginning in 1862, ED wore only white to symbolize her pledge to remain faithful to Wadsworth (Stanza 5). For ED’s history with Wadsworth, see the extended comment on poem F652, ‘That I did always love’:

Biographic History of ED and Reverend Charles Wadsworth’.

An interpretation of ‘The Birds reported from the South’ (in italic font):

Stanza 1

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

Wadsworth’s letter from Philadelphia,
Told me he was moving to San Francisco.
My replies to Him were angry.
Now I’m deaf to his explanation.

Stanza 2

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

Wadsworth appealed in timid letters,
I reinforced the door to his pleas
“Go preach to your Calvary Congregation”, I said
And trouble Me — no More —

Stanza 3

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

Memories of our summer promise to marry in Heaven begged remembrance,
But it was too late, despite Wadsworth’s best efforts.
My heart tried to convince my head, but
Failed utterly.

Stanza 4

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

At length, a Mourner, like Myself,
He drew away austere,
His frosts to ponder, and then it was
I forgave Him.

Stanza 5

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

He apologized, for I had mourned —
I offered Him no word;
My Witness was the White I bore;
His Witness was dead dreams.

Stanza 6

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

Thenceforward, we corresponded;
I never questioned Him.
Our Agreement was
A Wiser Sympathy

Four Trees — upon a solitary Acre —
Without Design
Or Order, or Apparent Action —
Maintain —

The Sun — upon a Morning meets them —
The Wind —
No nearer Neighbor—have they —
But God —

The Acre gives them — Place —
They — Him — Attention of Passer by —
Of Shadow, or of Squirrel, haply —
Or Boy —

What Deed is Theirs unto the General Nature —
What Plan
They severally — retard — or further —
Unknown —

 

Once each decade for 40 years (1976-2016), I censused a small population (~200) of Table Mountain Pines growing on a few xeric acres of the western shoulder of a basalt monadnock in western North Carolina, Looking Glass Rock. During the first census in 1976, I established an X-Y coordinate map of each tree/sapling, gave it an ID number, e.g., 2-17-0 (photo above), and photographed its location on the exposed basalt. I measured each individual’s height, diameter, and soil depth, although most were growing in cracks of the rock, and noted its apparent health: poor, average, robust. During the next four censuses, 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016, I remeasured each survivor, added new seedlings, and noted deaths. Over time, I came to think of each tree as a friend, tough and fragile as you and I. As you might imagine, ED’s poem, “Four Trees”, instantly awakened memories (Barden 1977, 1988, 2000, 2020).

Barden.1977.Self-Maintaining Populations of Pinus Pungens Lam. in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Castanea 42: 316-323.
——.1998.Drought and Survival in a Self-perpetuating Pinus pungens Population: Equilibrium or Nonequilibrium?. The American Midland Naturalist 119: 253-257.
——.2000.Population Maintenance of Pinus pungens Lam. (Table Mountain Pine) After a Century
Without Fire. Natural Areas Journal 20:227-231.
—— and Costa. 2020. Four Decades of Table Mountain Pine Demography on Looking Glass Rock. Castanea 85(1): 23–32.

……………………………………………………………

No surprise, I think “Him” in Stanza 3 refers to “Acre”, not “God” (atheist speaking). ED constantly amazes me by her apparent flip-flopping between atheism and deism, but does she ever really flip-flop? Sherwood (1968) suggests ED’s opinion of God may shift wildly from poem-to-poem, but she was never an atheist:

“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. p 3.)”

…………………………………

This 1863 poem asks: Do these Four Trees have a God-given purpose, or are they simply Darwinian descendants of an unknown primordial entity (a self-replicating molecule) whose origin will eventually be understood, or not, by science)?:

“What Deed is Theirs unto the General Nature —
What Plan
They severally — retard — or further —
Unknown —”

That ED had read, or read about, Darwin’s new book, ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’. (Published 24 November 1859) can be answered with near certainty. She, Austin, and Edward eagerly read each issue of The Atlantic Monthly cover-to-cover. The July, August, and October 1860 issues contained a serialized, 11,000-word review of Darwin’s book by America’s leading botanist, Harvard’s Asa Gray. Teen-age ED had created a professional-quality set of herbarium specimens that would make any botanist proud, and the 29-year-old ED would have devoured Gray’s essay.
………………………………………..

I prefer ED’s alternate phrase in Line 15:

What Plan
They severally — promote — or hinder —
Unknown —”

 

 

 

 

 

777.1864.Life, and Death, and Giants—

 No alternate words.

 Life, and Death, and Giants—
Such as These—are still—
Minor—Apparatus—
Hopper of the Mill—
Beetle at the Candle—
Or a Fife’s Fame—
Maintain—by Accident
that they proclaim—

Could ED be riffing on Romans 8:38-9?:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Gatta 2009).

By 1864 ED was well aware of Darwin’s theory of evolution (‘Origin of Species’, 1859). However, when she says “Minor—Apparatus—” are maintained by accident “that they proclaim”, she may be repeating claims by “they” (creationists?) that Darwin believed species, including humans, evolved simply by accident.

ED’s closing pronoun “they” (Line 8) may grammatically refer to “Hopper, Beetle, and Fife”, but it could easily also refer to scientists. No modern scientist would attribute the proximal causes of natural selection to “accident”; distal causes are another matter.

Perhaps some exuberant scientists of ED’s day proclaimed species exist by pure accident, but natural selection is no accident. It is true that genetic mutations are random, but survival of those mutations isn’t random, nor are today’s species simply “accidents”, as Lines 7-8 suggest.

Rather, eons of winnowing, both biotic and abiotic, extinguished far more species than exist on Earth today. It is no accident that “warm-blooded” mammals and birds replaced “cold-blooded” reptiles that dominated before a massive meteorite struck Earth 63 million years ago, creating a global climate too cold for too long for most large reptile species to persist.

Was that meteorite an accident? Yes, but species survived by no accident, rather by possessing inherited traits enabling their survival. Their ancestors had survived gauntlets that genetically prepared their offspring to inherit the devastated Earth. Of course, ED had no knowledge of scientific advances during the 150+ years since her death, just as we possess no knowledge of advances of the next 150 years. What we do know is that in 2175 AD there will still be new evolution questions to answer.

PS. ED knew her Latin well (F2, “Sic transit gloria mundi”), probably to the depth of fourth-declension-noun plurals such as “apparatus”. Google AI, for whatever it’s worth, tells me the plural of “apparatus” is spelled identically, but the third “a” is pronounced long, as in “curator”. ED did not share that obscure Latin grammar with us 2025 readers, probably assuming our modern educational apparatus would be equal to hers. Anywho, it really helps this nerdy reader enjoy ‘Life, and Death, and Giants —’ more when plural “apparatus” is pronounced with a long third ” a”.

 

Della Gatta, Carla. 2009. Performing for God and “Maintain”ing In His Absence.
Pennsylvania Liteary Journal 1(1): 52-62