Emily Dickinson’s “Color – Caste – Denomination”

Emily Dickinson’s “Color – Caste – Denomination”

Emily Dickinson’s speaker in “Color – Caste – Denomination” is demonstrating a profound truth about the flaws in human classifications that still today lead to ill-will and even violence toward members of different racial, social class, and religion groups.

Human Classifications:  Two Views

Emily Dickinson’s “Color – Caste – Denomination” and Arna Bontemps’ “God Give to Men” take as their theme the issue of the classifications that humanity has through the centuries imposed upon itself.  

While there are many ways that human beings identity themselves, three common ones are race, class (social status), and religion; thus, Dickinson has labeled the classes “color” (race), “caste” (class, social status), and “denomination” (religion).

Arna Bontemps in his race conscious piece “God Give to Men” has concentrated primarily on the classification of color (race).  He refers to the skin color for two of the classes—”yellow” and “black”—but then uses the eye color “blue” for the third class.  The poets Emily Dickinson and Arna Bontemps have handled the issue of human classification in two quite disparate ways:  

(1) Dickinson’s drama serves to unite all human classes, as her speaker insists that each human being is a soul without any of the outward classifications with which humanity has burdened itself.

(2) Bontemps’ speaker remains squarely focused on the issues that he finds repugnant or venal in each color class, not his own.  As his speaker asks God to give certain gifts to men, he reveals his animosity toward two of his designated classes.  The third class receives rather short shrift in an ironic attempt at humility.

Dickinson’s ultimate truth is based on the individuality of each human being, while Bontemps relies heavily on racial stereotypes [1], which  serve only to divide, not unify, for not all members of any so-called classification represent the concocted stereotype that attempts to define and describe that classification.

Text of Emily Dickinson’s “Color – Caste – Denomination”

The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s “Color – Caste – Denomination” demonstrates a profound understanding regarding the futility of human classifications [2]  based on race, class, religion, and sex.

The theme of the Dickinson poem is likely influenced by Galatians 3: 28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” [3].

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 –

To view Emily Dickinson’s hand-written copy of this poem, please visit the Emily Dickinson Archive.

Commentary on Dickinson’s “Color – Caste – Denomination”

The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s “Color – Caste – Denomination” is demonstrating the futility of humanity’s self-classification that is still today widely and tragically misconstrued and continues to lead to unfortunate struggles and misunderstandings among the peoples of the world.

First Stanza:  The Delusion of Classification

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

The perspicacious speaker begins with an audacious claim: the human soul possesses no ordinary identities associated with race, class (social status), or religion.  By extension, one would realize that if those common classes are null, so is the classification by sex and/or sexual orientation.

This speaker perceives that those classifications are merely delusional imaginings, resulting from the mayic realm [4] of the operative pairs of opposites which have their being under time’s sway:  “These – are Time’s Affair.” 

The fact that these classifications vanish after death demonstrates that they are merely delusive tools, useful only, if useful at all, to the material level of existence.  The soul is “Death’s diviner Classifying,” and Death cannot classify the living.  When Death attempts to classify the soul, it finds that the soul’s purity lacks those limiting qualities that humanity assigns itself.

Second Stanza:   A Dreamer’s Awareness

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

The speaker, desiring to further clarify her claim, then compares “death” to “sleep”—in sleep, the human being forgets his/her race, class, religion, and sex.  These “tenets” are abandoned, and the sleeper, if she dreams, may dream herself a different race, class, religion, or sex, but as long as she dreams those classes will seem to be reality.

Sleep, like Death, has “large – Democratic fingers” which are capable of erasing the marks of human classifications that circumscribe the individual in ordinary, waking consciousness. The dreamer understands her images and relates to them exactly as she does while awake. 

Third Stanza:   The Unclassifiable Soul

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

The Circassians [5] comprised a civilization in Diaspora, routed by the Russians and then by the Ottoman Empire. Their classifications would be tenuous at best; thus, their ability to classify themselves would be quite difficult, as many other civilizations have experienced.  Peoples who live in contiguity to conquering peoples have found it difficult to maintain a unified identity; such has also been the lot of the Jewish people [6]. 

But even the “Circassian” who attempts to identity her classification would find that like a butterfly, whether it be “Blonde – or Umber,” she would still remain “Equal Butterfly.” The speaker is suggesting that the usefulness of names on the material plane can never taint the soul. The soul remains perfectly unclassifiable by mayic limitations. 

This speaker finds solace in this awareness as do most objective, fair-minded thinkers,  but in 21st century America, those who are financially and emotionally invested in the victimhood concocted through identity politics [7] find such an idea abhorrent, as it leaves them without a favorite issue to exploit for political gain [8].

Fourth Stanza:  Delusive Limitations of Race, Class, Religion, and Gender

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

The speaker ultimately is averring through suggestion that each human soul is not “obscured” by any attempt to classify it by the delusive limitations of race, class, religion, or sex.   Death knows this, the speaker again emphasizes. Even the tiniest inference that the human mind makes regarding that futile act of classifying will remain “unplausible.”

Sources

[1] Saul Mcleod, PhD.  “Stereotypes In Psychology: Definition & Examples.”  SimplyPsychology.  Updated onJune 16, 2023

[2] Elizabeth Kolbert. “There’s No Scientific Basis for Race—It’s a Made-Up Label.” National Geographic. The Race Issue.

[3]  King James Version:   Galatians 3: 28.

[4]  Paramahansa Yogananda.  “Theory of Maya.”  The Royal Path of Kriya Yoga.  Accessed August 18, 2023.

[5]   Kipyego Isaac Kipruto.  “Who Are the Circassian People?”  World Atlas.  Accessed May 31, 2026.

[6] Editors.  “Ancient Jewish History: The Diaspora.” Jewish Virtual Library.  Accessed May 31, 2026.

[7] David Azerrad, Ph.D.”The Promises and Perils of Identity Politics.” The Heritage Foundation.  January 23, 2019.

[8] Walter Benn Michaels, Charles W. Mills, Linda Hirshman and Carla Murphy.  “What Is the Left Without Identity Politics?” The Nation.  December 16, 2016.