O Great Christ
—after “Cloud-Colored Christ”
O great Christ,
Great Jesus the Christ—
Come out of the darkest clouds,
Come out of the brightest sky,
Bend the earth to Thy desire.
Be Thou our Guiding Light!
Make humankind like Thyself,
Thy worthy self.
O great Christ,
Great Jesus the Christ—
Guide us in our reason,
In our heart’s feeling,
And in our soul,
Be Thou our Guiding Light
Emily Dickinson’s “The Gentian weaves her fringes”
In Emily Dickinson’s “The Gentian weaves her fringes,” the speaker metaphorically likens the end of summer to the departure of the soul of a loved one, creating a little funeral drama in a church with a final prayer offering.
Introduction and Text of “The Gentian weaves her fringes”
Emily Dickinson kept the Sabbath by staying home, as she so colorfully expressed in her poem, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church.” But while others were content to participate in the traditional church services, Dickinson created speakers who marveled in the natural surroundings to the point of uplifting those natural creatures to divine entities in the rarified spiritual air.
As most readers know, Emily Dickinson lived a cloistered life resembling that of a monastic, earning herself the title, “Nun of Amherst.” Her poem, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,” celebrates this cherished belief held by “the nun of Amherst” that merely staying home and worshipping could lead one to heaven instead of waiting for death.
In the “Some keep the Sabbath” poem, the speaker creates her own church with a bird serving the position of the choir director and fruit trees serving as the roof of her church. And the sermon is preached by none other than “God,””a noted Clergyman.”
Like the “Some keep the Sabbath” poem, “The Gentian weaves her fringes” also finds the speaker creating her own church along with a church funeral service that she employs metaphorically as the death or departure of the summer season. The echo of a traditional prayer caps the little drama with beauty and leaves the reader in a highly spiritual atmosphere of the divine, little Dickinson created church.
The Gentian weaves her fringes
The Gentian weaves her fringes –
The Maple’s loom is red –
My departing blossoms
Obviate parade.
A brief, but patient illness –
An hour to prepare,
And one below this morning
Is where the angels are –
It was a short procession,
The Bobolink was there –
An aged Bee addressed us –
And then we knelt in prayer –
We trust that she was willing –
We ask that we may be.
Summer – Sister – Seraph!
Let us go with thee!
In the name of the Bee –
And of the Butterfly –
And of the Breeze – Amen!
Commentary on “The Gentian weaves her fringes”
The speaker is metaphorically likening the end of summer to the departure of the soul of a loved one, creating a little funeral drama in a church with a final prayer offering.
First Stanza: Observation of the Departing Blooms
The Gentian weaves her fringes –
The Maple’s loom is red –
My departing blossoms
Obviate parade.
The speaker observes that the Gentian flower that grows billowy edges has been weaving those edges while the red maple tree remains looming overhead. But then she reveals that she is reporting not a simple celebration of blooming plants, but instead she will be describing the departures of “blossoms.” Those blooming flowers are departing because summer is coming to an end.
Second Stanza: Drama of a Church Service
A brief, but patient illness –
An hour to prepare,
And one below this morning
Is where the angels are –
It was a short procession,
The Bobolink was there –
An aged Bee addressed us –
And then we knelt in prayer –
We trust that she was willing –
We ask that we may be.
Summer – Sister – Seraph!
Let us go with thee!
The speaker then creates a fascinating scenario calling the short summer season a “brief, but patient illness.” Of course, it is the grieving speaker who feels the illness that her beloved summer with all of its warmth, colors, and inviting other sense pleasures will soon be departing. Thus she is metaphorically likening the end of summer to the end of the life of a beloved friend or relative.
And she is doing so for a very specific reason. Just as the speaker averred in “Some Keep the Sabbath,” she is creating a special church service. This time it is a funeral service that includes “the Bobolink” and “an aged Bee” who offer eulogies for the departing loved one.
The speaker then proclaims that the funeral attendees all “knelt in prayer.” The prayer expresses the wish that the departing soul is doing so willingly. She then offers a startling remark, naming the departing one not only “Summer” but “Sister” and “Seraph.” This departing soul is close as a sister and beloved as an angel. Thus this speaker expresses the wish to accompany Summer on its departing journey.
Third Stanza: A Final Prayer Offering
In the name of the Bee –
And of the Butterfly –
And of the Breeze – Amen!
The completion of the prayer echoes the many prayers that are offered weekly in most churches. But instead of “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” this speaker’s created natural church prayer pays homage to the natural creatures, Bee, Butterfly, and Breeze. She then appends the same devotional closing found in most if not all Christian prayers—”Amen!”
Divine Mother’s Tiny Bee
—after “Blue Lotus Feet”
My mind is a tiny bee
Buzzing, buzzing
The blue lotus feet
Of my Divine Mother.
Engrossed
In the sacred dust of each toe,
Gathering
That sacred dust of each blue toe.
The holy blue lotus toes
Of my Divine Mother
Like a sacred blue fragrant rose
On each foot of my Divine Mother.
My tiny bee mind,
Thine infinite blue feet,
I am Thy child,
Thou art my Mother.
O Divine Mother
I shall always be
But Thy tiny bee
Buzzing, buzzing
Thy blue lotus feet.
Emily Dickinson’s “Baffled for just a day or two”
This poem, “Baffled for just a day or two,” is one of Emily Dickinson’s most puzzling riddles, and like many of her poems, it begs multiple level interpretations from a flower in her garden to the eruption in a garden mind of a new type of poem.
Introduction and Text of “Baffled for just a day or two”
Depending on who is being described as “baffled” and “embarrassed,” the poem reveals a chance “encounter” with some unexpected, but likely not completely unknown entity. Because the location is the speaker’s “garden,” a flower may be presumed.
But if “garden” refers to the mythological garden of the poet’s poetry, as mentioned in the poem, “There is another sky,” in which the speaker invites her brother, “Prithee, my brother, / Into my garden come!,” the strange, “unexpected Maid,” may turn out to be a poem.
Baffled for just a day or two
Baffled for just a day or two –
Embarrassed – not afraid –
Encounter in my garden
An unexpected Maid.
She beckons, and the woods start –
She nods, and all begin –
Surely, such a country
I was never in!
Commentary on “Baffled for just a day or two”
Emily Dickinson’s metaphysical garden includes many varieties of flowering poems, even those that might have startled her upon first appearance.
First Stanza: Some Stranger in Her Garden Has Appeared
Baffled for just a day or two –
Embarrassed – not afraid –
Encounter in my garden
An unexpected Maid.
The speaker begins with an odd remark, indicating that someone or some entity was confused and perhaps struggling to emerge, as a flower pushing itself up through the soil might do. The entity remained in the situation for only a couple of days. Because of its struggle, which likely looked awkward, it was “embarrassed,” but it struggled on without fear.
This event happened in the speaker’s garden, where she “encounter[ed]” “an unexpected Maid.” The speaker never reveals explicitly who or what this “Maid” is. She leaves it up to the reader to take as much from her riddle/poem as possible. And it is likely that she thinks of this poem as so deeply personal that she will remain blissfully unconcerned even if no one ever grasps her exact reference.
Second Stanza: From Some Hitherto Unvisited Metaphysical Plane
She beckons, and the woods start –
She nods, and all begin –
Surely, such a country
I was never in!
This important “Maid,” who has made her appearance, then gestures enticingly, and that coaxing invitation causes the “woods” to begin moving toward her. The “Maid” then “nods” and things begin to happen. What begins to happen, the speaker is not divulging.
The speaker then asserts another odd remark, saying that she “was never” in “such a country.” That claim baffles the reader, for surely the speaker cannot be saying she was never in her garden, whether it refers to her literal, physical garden or to her figurative, metaphysical garden.
But ah, knowing Dickinson, how mystically inclined her mind worked, her speaker could, in fact, be exaggerating because after the flower appeared, its beauty was beyond the gardener-speaker’s expectations.
Or if the “Maid” is a poem, the speaker is revealing that the poem was so new, fresh, and profound that she feels she has never before encountered such a piece, and therefore it must come from a “country” or place in her mind/soul in which she, up to this point, has never visited.
The poem works well on either the physical (Maid as flower) or the metaphysical (Maid as poem), as all great poetry does. And while a reader might choose to accept the physical, readers who choose the metaphysical are likely to become more in tune with the Dickinsonian way of thinking.
The Dickinson Mind
Emily Dickinson was a poetic genius, as her reputation clearly affirms. Her poems have delighted audiences since her works became widely disseminated. Her poems reveal a mind that paid close attention to details. The details that surrounded her in her home and the details of nature outside her home which she had the privilege of observing became her material for creating her little poetic dramas.
However, the Dickinson mind was not content to merely describe the minutia of everyday life or even of living a New England life. Emily Dickinson grasped early on that the world was filled with meaning. The life she was living and the lives which all of her contemporaries were living sustained a meaning that only suggested itself to the individuals.
But for Dickinson that suggestion remained a guiding force, urging her to know all she could know. Her mind was a hungry, fierce animal that stalked it prey with a vengeance; it prey was that suggestion of meaning that resided in every created thing.
God has created an untold number of things, and each and every one of those things holds untold levels of meaning. Interestingly, it seems that only God’s things known as human beings are capable of wondering about the meaning of things, the meaning of life, the meaning of living a proper life.
Also interesting, it also seems that only a new of those human beings have noticed that all God’s creation contains things with meaning. Most individuals grasp the fact that things are useful, and in employing hat usefulness, reason and wonder often take a backseat. People seem to leave the thinking of profound subjects for simply getting through another day with enough shelter, food, and raiment to sustain life.
Emily Dickinson was of the few who take life so seriously that they contemplate, gather the fruits of their contemplations, and then create little dramas out of them. Her life-long amazement that existence existed motivated her to continue creating her little garden and her world that thrived under “another sky.”
The Dickinsonian mind is itself a thing of wonder. Her depth of peering into something so simple as a flower remains a curiosity. Her poems are testimonies to the amazing quality of her thinking. While her depth and force may be especially extraordinary, they, nevertheless, are part and parcel of every human mind.
All human minds possess the same capabilities that the Dickinsonian mind possessed. The only difference is in their execution. Dickinson gave in to urge to know everything she could about everything she encountered. Any limiting factors standing in the way of her progress became mountains that she gladly climbed, and at the top of each mount, she sat gleefully composing the details of her journey upward.
My Secret Soul
—after “At Thy Feet”
In my secret soul grows a garden where my secret Belovèd
Nurtures enchanted flowers of melody with the grand AUM…
Buds of beauty dance and sway as I play the harmonium
And sing my soul songs only for Thy listening presence.
Listen to my soul songs, O Divine Belovèd,
Listen to my songs of joy divine and love everlasting!
Hiding from the glaring eye of the world,
I make my magical noise only for Thy listening presence—
Far from the bustle of the deceptions
And delusions of maya.
Listen to my soul songs, O Divine Joy!
Listen to my magic songs, O Playful One!
I hear Thee AUMing throughout my brain,
Inside my heart, within my mind!
I wait listening, listening, listening with my whole being!
I wait listening, listening, listening in my secret soul!
Emily Dickinson’s “I would distal a cup”
Emily Dickinson’s “I would distal a cup” mimics a toast to a departing friend. It appears in a letter to newspaper editor Samuel Bowles, a family friend.
Introduction and Text of “I would distil a cup”
The text of Emily Dickinson’s “I would distal a cup” in prose form appears in a letter to Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican, the most influential newspaper in New England around 1858. The letter begins with the writer thanking Mr. Bowles for sending her a pamphlet. She expresses uncertainly that he is the actual sender but thanks him in case he is.
The rest of the letter finds the writer communicating her famous claim that her friends are her “estate,” and celebrating the notion that friendship enlivens her, keeping her on her toes. The letter bears the date August 1858 and she remarks that the workers are gathering the “second Hay.”
Thus the summer season is winding down. It is at this point in the letter that she states, “I would distil a cup, and bear to all my friends, drinking to her no more astir, by beck, or burn, or moor!”
Apparently, Dickinson thought enough of this sentence to include it as a full-fledged poem in one of the many fascicles that Thomas H. Johnson later edited for publication in his The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, the groundbreaking work that restored Dickinson’s poems to their original forms.
In the letter, Dickinson’s sentence-turned-poem seems to jump up out the verbiage as a toast at a gala dinner party, wherein one would rise, raise a cup, and offer the toast to one being recognized.
I would distil a cup
I would distil a cup,
And bear to all my friends,
Drinking to her no more astir,
By beck, or burn, or moor!
Commentary on “I would distal a cup”
In a letter to Samuel Bowels, Emily Dickinson puts on display her colorful, chatty conversational ability, including this original prose-statement, which later became a finished poem.
First Movement: Creating, Rising, and Offering
I would distil a cup,
And bear to all my friends,
The speaker, as if rising to offer a toast at some gathering of friends, imparts that she wishes to offer a toast “to all [her] friends.” The drink is likely a fine whiskey; thus the speaker conflated the manufacture of the drink with her lifting the cup.
She makes herself more important to the creation of the drink than she, or anyone offering a toast, would deserve. But the exaggeration simply implies her devotion to her friends, who are by the way, her “estate.” Not only is she offering a toast, but she is also creating the drink in order to offer it.
Then after the speaker had created this distilled beverage, she lifts her cup and bears its contents to all of her friends. At the point that poem appears in her letter to Bowles, she had made it clear that she can make chatty conversation.
She has claimed that she wishes to be forgiven for hoarding her friends. She has surmised that those who were once poor have a very different view of gold than those who have never suffered poverty.
The letter writer even invokes God, saying He does not worry so much as we or else he would “give us no friends, lest we forget him.” Playing on the expression, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” she compares what one might anticipate in “Heaven” as opposed to what one experiences on earth and finds the latter more appealing.
However, the speaker then abruptly tells Bowles that, “Summer stopped since you were here,” after which she mourns the loss of summer with several acerbic witticisms. She offers Bowles some paraphrases from her “Pastor,” who has dismissed humanity as nothing but a “Worm.”
Then she poses the question to Bowles: “Do you think we shall ‘see God’?” This abrupt inquiry likely startled Bowles, which is no doubt the writer’s purpose. But then she moves on to the image of “Abraham” “strolling” with God “in genial promenade,” seemingly answering her own startling question.
Second Movement: As Summer Abandons the Streams and Meadows
Drinking to her no more astir,
By beck, or burn, or moor!
After having distilled the fine liquor, poured it into her cup, she lifts it and offers her toast to the one who is in the process of departing—her beloved summer. The summer season is no longer “astir” in the streams or on the meadows.
She employs the colorful terms “beck” and “burn” (bourne) to refer to streams of water. And then she refers to fields, heaths, or meadows as “moor,” likely also for its colorful, exotic texture.
Immediately after the toasting sentence in the letter, the letter writer abruptly bids Mr. Bowles, “Good night,” but she still has more to say and proceeds to say it. She then claims that “this is what they say who come back in the morning.”
She seems to be identifying with summer who is saying good-bye but only to return “in the morning.” But her certainty that “Confidence in Daybreak modifiers Dusk,” allows her to accept the pair of opposites that continually blight her world.
The speaker has difficulty even saying good-night or good-bye to a friend once she has opened the conversation. But she knows she must wind down, just a summer has done; thus she wishes blessings for Bowles’ wife and children, even going to far as to send kisses for lips of the little ones.
She then tells Bowles that she and the rest of the Dickinson family remain eager to visit with him again. And she will dispense with “familiar truths,” for his sake.
Emily Dickinson and at the Exotic
Emily Dickinson’s penchant for exoticisms likely enamored her of some of the more cryptic expressions placed in her letters. That penchant allowed her be so cheeky as to select certain expressions and later present them in a fascicle as a poem.
It also explains her employment of terms for ordinary nouns such a field, river, creek, or meadow. She kept her dictionary handy and made abundant use of it. Luckily, her intuitive perception and ability with language kept her from suffering the clownish terminology often detected by users of a thesaurus.
Thou Hast Opened My Blind Eyes
—after “Listen, Listen, Listen”
Thou hast opened my eyes to treachery
And grown me a shield against her.
She groped through my heart chambers
Leaving barbs that pricked with each beat,
But Thou hast swept them away,
Swept each chamber clean!
Thou hast opened my blind eyes;
Now, I open my voice
And sing to Thee my songs
That Thou hast given me.
O, hear my songs,
Hear my songs to Thee:
I can never forget, never forsake Thee,
O Great Sweeper of my heart!
Emily Dickinson’s “The Guest is gold and crimson”
Emily Dickinson’s “The Guest is gold and crimson” dramatizes sunset as a guest who visits every door, every day. This poem functions as a riddle, as the speaker never names the subject she is describing.
Introduction and Text of “The Guest is gold and crimson”
Within her collection of some 1,775 poems, Emily Dickinson has included at least 22 that focus on the diurnal phenomena known as “sunset.” So fascinated by the act was the poet that she creates speakers to dramatize it in many colorful outpourings.
In “The Guest is gold and crimson,” the speaker personifies “sunset” as a visitor who comes to town “at nightfall,” and he visits everyone in town as he “stops at every door.” And then the speaker follows the guest as though he were a bird moving beyond her own town and territory to other shores.
The Guest is gold and crimson
The Guest is gold and crimson –
An Opal guest and gray –
Of Ermine is his doublet –
His Capuchin gay –
He reaches town at nightfall –
He stops at every door –
Who looks for him at morning
I pray him too – explore
The Lark’s pure territory –
Or the Lapwing’s shore!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQVp-qZ1H5c&t=
Commentary on “The Guest is gold and crimson”
The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s “The Guest is gold and crimson” is dramatizing sunset as a guest who visits every door, every day. This poem functions as a riddle, as the speaker never names the subject she is describing.
First Movement: Elemental Coloration in the Heavens
The Guest is gold and crimson –
An Opal guest and gray –
The speaker describes the subject of her drama by stating the colors of sunset. Readers will immediately recognize the colors of “gold and crimson” as the remarkable duo of hues that accompany the onset of the setting of the sun.
Of course, depending upon the atmospheric accumulation of elements, those golds and crimsons may blend in outrageous ways that may put the viewer in mind of classic paintings by famous artists.
That those golds and crimsons come against the background of the sky results in an accompanying guest who is “Opal” as well as “gray.” The blue of the sky is influenced by the golds and appears opalescent against a darkening or graying out appearance.
At the opening scene, the speaker does not intrude upon her drama, except to state in definitive descriptors what she has actually observed from her own point of view. As she colorizes the scene, she offers her audience the room to blend those colors to their own experiences.
Second Movement: A Dandy Caller
Of Ermine is his doublet –
His Capuchin gay –
The speaker continues her description of the guest, who now resembles a gentleman caller, wearing a close-cropped jacket with a fur trim, and over it all he sports a lively colored cape. Thus, sunset has now been identified as a guest, who is a man dressed rather dandily.
Again, the textures along with colors allow her audience to envision the broad sky turning all mixtures of hues as the sun begins to close its eye on the speaker’s part of the earth. The speaker’s world is becoming dark, but not without a dramatic play of wild and glorious events happening all around the daystar as it takes its leave at nightfall.
Third Movement: An Virtually Omnipresent Visitor
He reaches town at nightfall –
He stops at every door –
Now this gentleman caller, this magnificently dressed guest, appears at nightfall. This guest has a delicious yet totally variant habit of not only visiting people in the town whom he knows, but he also visits every household as he “stops at every door.”
The marvelously arrayed guest is visible to everyone, everyday. The speaker must be so enthralled to describe such a magnanimous and generous visitor. This fine gentleman appears all gloriously decked out and performs his drama for all to enjoy.
Fourth Movement: Funny Speculation
Who looks for him at morning
I pray him too – explore
The speaker then offers a humorous speculation regarding someone who would be foolish enough to try to see this guest in the morning; such a thought is, of course, silly because this guest appears only at night. However, the speaker thus encourages such a person who has gone looking for this guest in the morning to continue looking, that is, keep “explor[ing].”
Fifth Movement: The Other Side of the Planet
The Lark’s pure territory –
Or the Lapwing’s shore!
If one by chance, after much exploration, happens upon the “Lark’s pure territory,” or around the Australian continent, one might catch a glimpse of this quest. Morning in Australia is, of course, nighttime in USA New England.
But the speaker’s ultimate recommendation is simply to look for this guest on the “Lapwing’s shore,” likely where she has observed him. Do not go looking for such a remarkable, colorful event anywhere but where you are. And as you find him at nightfall, you will find him to be a constant visitor, who will always astound you with his dramatic appearance.
Just a Visitor
—after “Where is there Love?”
I am just a visitor here
Where no one knows how to love me,
Where few even think of the soul;
Divine Mother, bless their blind eyes,
Bless their dry hearts, open wide
The gates of love that they may
Behold Thy radiant face.
I am just a visitor here
Where no one can love me,
For only soul love will satisfy me.
Divine Mother, bless this dark world
Where no one knows how to love anyone,
From where I yearn to travel to Thine abode
Where true loving love offers solace.
Emily Dickinson’s “One Sister have I in our house”
Emily Dickinson’s “One Sister have I in our house” is a tribute to her sister-in-law Susan Gilbert Dickinson, who married Emily’s brother Austin.
Introduction and Text of “One Sister have I in our house”
Susan Gilbert Dickinson became Emily Dickinson’s sister-in-law, but she also served Emily’s poetic talent by advising Emily about books to read and ideas to consider. Susan thus played an important rôle in Emily’s pursuit of empirical knowledge.
Susan had traveled extensively and had lived outside of Emily’s New England bubble; thus she was able to help Emily broaden her horizons regarding worldly knowledge.
While the Austin Dickinson home, the “Evergreens,” became the locus of tragedy, and likely Emily did not know the extent to which her adoptive sister might have shared in the blame for some of that discord, Emily remained beholden to Susan for the many useful and important aspects of art that Susan brought into Emily’s life.
Emily possessed the wherewithal to look on the bright side of life and celebrate it, even in the face of adversity. Thus the following poem is Emily’s tribute to her second sister, who lived “a hedge away.”
One Sister have I in our house
One Sister have I in our house,
And one, a hedge away.
There’s only one recorded,
But both belong to me.
One came the road that I came –
And wore my last year’s gown –
The other, as a bird her nest,
Builded our hearts among.
She did not sing as we did –
It was a different tune –
Herself to her a music
As Bumble bee of June.
Today is far from Childhood –
But up and down the hills
I held her hand the tighter –
Which shortened all the miles –
And still her hum
The years among,
Deceives the Butterfly;
Still in her Eye
The Violets lie
Mouldered this many May.
I spilt the dew –
But took the morn –I chose this single star
From out the wide night’s numbers –
Sue – forevermore!
Commentary on “One Sister have I in our house”
Emily Dickinson’s “One Sister have I in our house” is a tribute to her sister-in-law Susan Gilbert Dickinson, who married Emily’s brother Austin.
First Stanza: Two Sisters
One Sister have I in our house,
And one, a hedge away.
There’s only one recorded,
But both belong to me.
The speaker begins by stating colorfully that she has two sisters: one lives in the same building as the speaker, while the other one resides in a nearby edifice that is “a hedge away.” She then states that one sister is legally hers having been “recorded” as such, but she recognizes them both as her siblings.
Dickinson in this poem is once again employing her riddle-like style, but she never names her legal sister with whom she resides, while in the final line, she does reveal the name of the sister who lives nearby: “Sue – forevermore!”
“Sue” is Susan Gilbert whom Dickinson had known for many years, and who married Austin Dickinson, Emily’s only brother. Emily adored her brother and she then came to love her sister-in-law and accepted her as a sister, as this poem portrays the tribute to Sue Gilbert.
Second Stanza: Contrasting Sisters
One came the road that I came –
And wore my last year’s gown –
The other, as a bird her nest,
Builded our hearts among.
Continuing to contrast the differences that exist between the two “sisters” whom the speaker is claiming, the speaker reveals that she is a bit older than her natural-birth sister by saying that that sister was able to fit into the garments that the speaker had outgrown, “last year’s gown.” And the natural, legal sister has traveled the same “road” that the speaker has traveled.
The adopted sister came into their lives like a bird that builds its nest among the leaves. But this sister claimed their hearts, and thus the speaker can now feel comfortable calling her sister.
Third Stanza: Seeing New Englandly
She did not sing as we did –
It was a different tune –
Herself to her a music
As Bumble bee of June.
The new sister also has a somewhat different style of viewing life as well as a different way of speaking from the Dickinson’s. Emily once said “I see–New Englandly–.” And she, of course, spoke New Englandly.
While Susan Gilbert was born in Massachusetts, she was raised from age 5 in New York; thus she would not have acquired the same Massachusetts (New England) accent that the Dickinson’s would have employed.
Nevertheless, the speaker has enjoyed the speaking, singing of the newly added sister, as she compares that new sister’s accent to the June bumble bee. That sound at first stings the mind but becomes a welcome sound because it means that summer is here.
Fourth Stanza: A Pleasant Trek
Today is far from Childhood –
But up and down the hills
I held her hand the tighter –
Which shortened all the miles –
The speaker now reveals that she is reporting from a period of time that has moved them all way beyond “Childhood.” And the speaker thus reports that having trekked through the landscape with her new sister and “held her hand” even tighter as the years have flown by has made the speaker’s life more pleasant.
The miles of travel through life can become long and tedious, but having a pleasant companion can make those miles seem less long and tedious. The new sister has done that for the speaker, and thus this tribute to that sister.
Fifth Stanza: Retaining an Eye for Beauty
And still her hum
The years among,
Deceives the Butterfly;
Still in her Eye
The Violets lie
Mouldered this many May.
The speaker continues to remark about the sister’s speaking. That sister has the ability to fit in to the New England way of things remarkably well. She is so well suited to the New England way that the natives may even think she grew up a New England resident.
The speaker then reports that although many months of May have come and gone, the sister’s eye for detecting the natural beauty in flowers or little violet blooms remains in tact; the “Violet” thus becomes a symbol for all of nature in these lines.
Sixth Stanza: Achieving Harmony and Balance
I spilt the dew –
But took the morn –
I chose this single star
From out the wide night’s numbers –
Sue – forevermore!
The speaker finally reports that she became aware of her great admiration for her adoptive sister as morning seemed to overtake her in thought that was as gentle and wet as the “dew.” These thoughts that watered her growing plant of musing caused the speaker to pick out this remarkable friend who has served the speaker’s life like a sister.
The speaker calls that new sister a “star” for the light of knowledge the sister has provided the speaker. The appreciative speaker vows to continue to respect and honor that relationship that has grown between the two writers.
Susan Dickinson Also a Writer
Susan Gilbert Dickinson was also a writer and had advised Emily on a wide variety of topics important to poets. Emily once quipped to Susan, “With the exception of Shakespeare, you have told me of more knowledge than any one living.”
Emily also called such praise strange, yet poets know that knowledge is a priceless gift, and they understand that honoring the giver of such gifts is necessary for a balanced life. Dickinson was completely aware of the necessity of striving for and achieving harmony in her life, and she took every precaution to arrive safely on the shores of harmony and balance.
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