Linda's Literary Home

Author: Linda Sue Grimes

  • Emily Dickinson’s “I cannot dance upon my Toes”

    Image: Emily Dickinson - Amherst College - Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 - likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
    Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet

    Emily Dickinson’s “I cannot dance upon my Toes”

    Famously, the poet Emily Dickinson lived a reclusive life.  She protected her privacy.  In her poetry canon, she often crafted little poetic dramas exploring and exposing the great joy her solitude afforded her. This poem is one of those little dramas.

    Introduction with Text of “I cannot dance upon my Toes”

    Emily Dickinson’s “I cannot dance upon my Toes” offers five stanzas, setting forth the poet’s famous slant rimes and non-traditional rhythms. The speaker is celebrating, with special emphasis, her personal experiences of “Glee.”

    She knows that her readers/listeners will readily perceive her comparison to great performances in dance, theater, and opera.  While her speaker does not link her joyous ecstasy to any particular public performances, she experiences great ecstatic bliss which she deems similar to the feelings heralded by such artistic displays.

    I cannot dance upon my Toes

    I cannot dance upon my Toes –
    No Man instructed me –
    But oftentimes, among my mind,
    A Glee possesseth me,

    That had I Ballet knowledge –
    Would put itself abroad
    In Pirouette to blanch a Troupe –
    Or lay a Prima, mad,

    And though I had no Gown of Gauze –
    No Ringlet, to my Hair,
    Nor hopped to Audiences – like Birds,
    One Claw upon the Air,

    Nor tossed my shape in Eider Balls,
    Nor rolled on wheels of snow
    Till I was out of sight, in sound,
    The House encore me so –

    Nor any know I know the Art
    I mention – easy –Here –
    Nor any Placard boast me –
    It’s full as Opera –

    Commentary on “I cannot dance upon my Toes”

    In Emily Dickinson’s “I cannot dance upon my Toes,” the speaker is creating a colorful poetic drama that examines the amazing joy afforded her through her engagement with solitude.

    First Quatrain:  The Joy of Dancing

    I cannot dance upon my Toes –
    No Man instructed me –
    But oftentimes, among my mind,
    A Glee possesseth me,

    The speaker asserts that she does not have the proficiency to dance as a ballerina would, because she has not received the necessary training and lessons that such dancers need to undergo. However, there are times during which she has the ability to experience indescribable joy of her soul.  She suggests that such joy may be similar to that experienced through ballet.

    The ability to dance upon one’s the toes remains a physical prowess, and very few individuals ever have the ability to reach such a lofty achievement.  Because such ability and talent remain so rare, the speaker assumes that those who have the talent to render such performances must then experience “Glee.”

    Second Quatrain:  Skill That Remains Amazing

    That had I Ballet knowledge –
    Would put itself abroad
    In Pirouette to blanch a Troupe –
    Or lay a Prima, mad,

    The speaker then reports that if she ever had the special talent and physical agility to dance upon her toes, she would experience a fantastic level of “Glee.”  The feeling would allow her to beam her talent as does the best of artists in the art of the ballet.

    She is sure that her amazing skill would put the prima ballerina to shame causing that dancer to become maddened.  The entire company of the ballet would become astonished by her amazing skill.

    The speaker’s exaggeration places emphasize upon her belief that her soul qualities alone are responsible for her actual talent, and she wishes to pay homage to the Divine Essence which bestows on her such abilities. 

    Third Quatrain:  No Fancy Outerwear

    And though I had no Gown of Gauze –
    No Ringlet, to my Hair,
    Nor hopped to Audiences –like Birds,
    One Claw upon the Air,

    In the third quatrain, the speaker reveals that she does not own gowns and gauze, as the famously public celebrity would possess.  She also does not have the ability to sport other fancy clothing as theatrical talent may do.  She also cannot have her hair styled into decorous fashion.  No make-up artists ever visit her to ply their wares. She will wear no ringlets in her hair.

    Because the speaker does not engage in the art of the ballet, she does not have the ability to fully comprehend that specialized art form.  She freely admits that she has never engaged and will never experience the feelings that ballet dancers do as they cavort and prance upon the stage “like Birds” with “One Claw upon the Air.”

    The speaker seems to express a modicum of disdain in describing the ballerinas as birds hopping across as stage with their hands in the air resembling the claw of a bird.  That fascinating image elevates the description as it so colorfully fits the event.

    Fourth Quatrain:  Keeping Life Simple

    Nor tossed my shape in Eider Balls,
    Nor rolled on wheels of snow
    Till I was out of sight, in sound,
    The House encore me so –

    The speaker then offers further images that reveal experiences which she has never had and likely never will experience.  For example, she has never “tossed” her body in “Eider Balls.”  Instead of the fancy, intricate costumes which ballerinas and opera singers wear, this speaker dresses herself in simple clothing. 

    She has never finished a performance by dancing out of sight of the audience.  She has never been called back to the stage by a ardent group of fans as they continue to applaud, prompting her to return to give them an enthusiastic “encore.”

    Fifth Quatrain:  Heavenly Rewards

    Nor any know I know the Art
    I mention –easy –Here –
    Nor any Placard boast me –
    It’s full as Opera –

    This speaker is demonstrating that she resides and thrives far outside of the milieu of ballet dancers.  She suspects that no one with whom she is acquainted would even have an inkling that she has ever become aware that such an art exists. 

    Through intuition, this speaker can comprehend that the value of her work and her ultimate worth are equal to –if, in fact, they do not overtake in value –that of the performances that have received so many accolades of praise.  

    She is convinced that her accolades remain on a mystical level of being.  Therefore, she can dance upon her toes –if only metaphorically and mystically –through her God-given talents reserved especially for her.

    Through this speaker, the poet has paid tribute to her poetic talent and even, at least in her own mind, has elevated her own talent.  In effect, she is averring that she is quite content to be unknown poet.  

    Even having the ability to be a celebrated prima ballerina cannot complete with the joy she experiences through her poetry creation.  Her garden of verse offers her her own stage for performance that makes it possible for her to live a complete life.

  • Haunting the Trees

    Haunting the Trees

    Making the sky look pink under the gray clouds. — Anonymous

    Every spectacle flits itself upon some podium.
    Hear the word pablum spew from despotic veins.
    Vines tangle in the wind.
    Rain beats against the tin roof of sorrow.

    Making truth is not making blather.
    Dogs grunt, run, and die.
    Over the hill go trains of thought.
    We look, learn, like, but fail to listen.

    In the glow of day, the rocks whiten.
    Lights go on at dusk in the starry afterthought.
    Saving time is not saving love.
    There is no “I” in “lost.”

    I confess to confession for the sake of
    Professing whatever is necessary.
    Each sentence completes itself
    Even in a tempest.

    Later is sooner than never,
    And I tell myself to wait and be patient.
    But I never listen, unless I feel bothered
    By other lies that scold me.

    You may paint your ceiling black
    And seek solace in some pretty face
    But you will never straighten your crooked
    Brain by faking the words of the ancients.

    Turn away, I keep saying to the wind—
    The wind that remains ghostly
    Keeping memory at bay
    While haunting the trees.

  • Emily Dickinson’s “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose”

    Image: Emily Dickinson - Amherst College - Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 - likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
    Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet

    Emily Dickinson’s “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose”

    The speaker in Dickinson’s poem “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose” is dramatizing what she knows about the sunrise but then hazards only a dramatic guess about sunset. Her choice for the target of her knowledge transforms the simple of act sunrise into a symbol.

    Introduction with Text of “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose”

    Emily Dickinson’s poem “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose” consists of sixteen lines, featuring her signature slant rimes and a generous sprinkling of dashes. The poem is written as one piece without divisions by stanzas but sections itself topically into four movements.

    The first two movements describe how the sun came up on the particular morning of the speaker’s choosing, while in the second two movements, the speaker is simply dramatizing her suggestion for why she cannot explain how the sun set.

    I’ll tell you how the Sun rose

    I’ll tell you how the Sun rose –
    A Ribbon at a time –
    The Steeples swam in Amethyst –
    The news, like Squirrels, ran –
    The Hills untied their Bonnets –
    The Bobolinks – begun –
    Then I said softly to myself –
    “That must have been the Sun”!
    But how he set – I know not –
    There seemed a purple stile
    That little Yellow boys and girls
    Were climbing all the while –
    Till when they reached the other side,
    A Dominie in Gray –
    Put gently up the evening Bars –
    And led the flock away –

    Commentary on “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose”

    Emily Dickinson’s “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose” is dramatizing what the speaker knows about the sunrise but then hazards only a dramatic guess about sunset.  Interestingly, she is suggesting that she can observe the sunrise but not the sunset.

    First Movement:   Explaining the Unexplainable 

    I’ll tell you how the Sun rose –
    A Ribbon at a time –
    The Steeples swam in Amethyst –
    The news, like Squirrels, ran –

    The speaker announces that she will be explaining to her listeners, “how the Sun rose.”  She then through the employment of metaphor likens the sun’s rays to ribbons that are released a single ribbon at a time.  The colorful sun ribbons of rays are leisurely released, and they hover the ocean to a place where the steeples of churches appear to “sw[i]m in Amethyst.” 

    The sun’s fire then looms upon the blackness, immediately reverting to blue as it takes on a brightness, fully glowing because of the light that the sun has released.   The luminescence of the sun spreads with great haste; thus the speaker compares its speed to the scampering of squirrels, as she calls the event “news.”

    Second Movement:  The Ordinary Made Extraordinary

    The Hills untied their Bonnets –
    The Bobolinks – begun –
    Then I said softly to myself –
    “That must have been the Sun”!

    The speaker now asserts that the hills removed their “Bonnets,” and the birds knowns as “Bobolinks” commenced their singing.  The metaphoric personification of hills with bonnets suggests that all of nature is coming alive again, and the speaker knows this because she sees many colors that may be detected in the faraway hills.  Birds have awakened, and they have begun their many layered chirping.

    The speaker’s reaction is such that it would make it seem she is seeing this event for the first time.  She muses and quotes herself breathlessly, for example, as she exclaims,”‘That must have been the Sun’!”  The speaker is creating her little drama using ordinary items from her environment which she makes extraordinary in her reporting.

    Third Movement:  A Forceful Drama

    But how he set – I know not –
    There seemed a purple stile
    That little Yellow boys and girls
    Were climbing all the while –

    The speaker then envisions her situation to be nearer to sunrise than to sunset.  This idea, of course, is merely fictional, but it offers her the ability to create her drama of how the sun rises.  She knows she cannot explain scientifically such an event, but she can forcefully and dramatically imagine it.

    So in order to explain sunset, she imagines she can see a set of steps that appear purple in color from a distance.  Little Chinese children are climbing on those steps.   Those children are likely just going home from a day of school or tending sheep.

    Fourth Movement:  The Cover of Darkness

    Till when they reached the other side,
    A Dominie in Gray –
    Put gently up the evening Bars –
    And led the flock away –

    The children have climbed to the other side of the stile, an event that signals the sun’s lowest point just as it then vanishes from sight.  A shepherd or perhaps even a churchman secures the gate then leads the flock of sheep or perhaps children away from that area.

    Because darkness is now hovering thick, the speaker cannot offer any images for what may be happening next.  The speaker’s lack of knowledge about sunset is reflected in her word choices which are much less certain than her drama about how the sun rises.  By suggesting that she can tell you all about how the sun rose but not so much about how it set implies the speaker prefers sunrise to sunset.

    The Symbolism of Sunrise

    In Emily Dickinson’s “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose,” sunrise becomes symbolic of life-enhancing positivity: the beginning of the day offers opportunities for living and creating.  Sunset, on the other hand, simply offers the opportunity for sleep.

    The curious active mind is always hankering for more positive opportunities for acting out its desires, for securing a stage for creativity, and for living its need for motion.  That stage is daylight, after the sun rises and throws its life-giving rays upon land and its inhabitants.  

  • Leave off the Past Again and Again

    Image-Created by ChatGPT inspired by the poem
    Image: Created by ChatGPT inspired by the poem

    Leave off the Past Again and Again

    for Me as a Young Girl

    Leave off the past again and again—
    Because I got used to trying to run
    When I was too young to know,
    I didn’t have to run but merely walk well.

    The others seemed to be always ahead
    And I could never catch up.
    The pain in my side told me
    I could not compete.

    But I wore my misery like a veil
    Covering some future tranquility
    That I could never achieve
    In the darkness of adolescence.

    Why did I not see that I could breathe
    Free in the air of ancient philosophy? —
    Even after I learned to walk with tenets
    And practice techniques for freedom?

    Peace is a heavenly state of being,
    Secured by tranquility and mindfulness,
    But it is not easy to sit still
    With a body screaming out pain.

    The more I put off, the more I fail
    But I seem to know what I do not know
    Even as I break my heart over
    My vague thoughts and prayers.

  • Emily Dickinson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light”

    Image: Emily Dickinson - Amherst College - Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 - likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
    Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet

    Emily Dickinson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light”

    Dickinson closely observed and investigated her surroundings; she also keenly examined her own feelings then dramatized those feelings in poems.  In “There’s a certain Slant of light,” her speaker is infusing melancholy into her perception of light streaming through a window on a winter afternoon.

    Introduction with Text of “There’s a certain Slant of light”

    Emily Dickinson developed the habit of closely observing as she investigated her surroundings.  The poet then keenly examined and mused upon her own feelings, finally dramatizing those feelings in poems.

    The poet created this speaker in “There’s a certain Slant of light” to reveal a mood of slight melancholy as she muses on a shaft of light streaming in through her window on a winter afternoon.  

    That streaming light through the window seems to tip and tilt, that is, “slant,” in a way that causes the speaker to undergo that sense of melancholy, which is no ordinary gloom but brings with it a spiritual aspect. 

    The speaker creates a little drama based on her intense feeling of spiritual intuition which has been motivated by a simple “Slant of light” streaming in through the window on a cold, winter afternoon.

    There’s a certain Slant of light

    There’s a certain Slant of light,
    Winter Afternoons –
    That oppresses, like the Heft
    Of Cathedral Tunes –

    Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
    We can find no scar,
    But internal difference,
    Where the Meanings, are –

    None may teach it – Any –
    ‘Tis the Seal Despair –
    An imperial affliction
    Sent us of the air –

    When it comes, the Landscape listens –
    Shadows – hold their breath –
    When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
    On the look of Death –

    Reading of “There’s a certain Slant of light” 

    Commentary on “There’s a certain Slant of light”

    A simple viewing of a shaft of light streaming into the room on a winter day engenders in this speaker a melancholy prompting this little drama.  The spiritual experience thus is rendered in paradox—the ultimate literary device for communicating the ineffable.

    First Stanza:  The Oppression of Tilting Light

    There’s a certain Slant of light,
    Winter Afternoons –
    That oppresses, like the Heft
    Of Cathedral Tunes –

    The speaker begins the drama by asserting that on certain winter afternoons the light shining in through her window comes in at a “certain Slant” and that tilting light “oppresses” her in the way the heavy tones of sacred chants might do. Although light is weightless, to the speaker in this particular mood, it seems heavy enough to oppress her into melancholy.

    A paradox results from the speaker finding the “light” to be as heavy as church music.  Music experienced in church is meant to uplift, not weigh one down.  If something that is meant to uplift does the opposite, then one has to explore the reasons for such oppression.  Why would music that ordinarily produces a spiritual upliftment become an instrument of oppression—that is, something that is heavy?

    Second Stanza:  The Human Craving for Meaning

    Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
    We can find no scar,
    But internal difference,
    Where the Meanings, are –

    The deeply inspiring sound of “Cathedral Tunes” brings the speaker to a place of “Heavenly Hurt.”  Again, she paradoxically describes her experience:  Heaven is a spiritual place where there is no hurt, no pain, no distress, no oppression—only bliss. 

    The speaker confirms as much as she avers that this “hurt” never results in a “scar.”  And it also leaves no physical mark such as scar because this melancholy is inside of the speaker; it is her soul that has engaged with this music, this light, that has caused this spiritual experience.

    The speaker employs the term, “Meaning”—all human beings on all levels of awareness crave meaning in their lives, and the speaker has become aware of the meaning of an inner life that is more important than the corporeal.  True meaning come from the soul not from the body that changes and dies, nor from the mind that knows nothing but change.

    Third Stanza:  Soul Meaning

    None may teach it – Any –
    ‘Tis the Seal Despair –
    An imperial affliction
    Sent us of the air –

    The speaker then affirms that one cannot be taught this kind of soul meaning. The mystical state of the desire for meaning comes on one unbidden, as casually as taking a breath. “Despair” of the material world often leads one to ask the question, is this all there is to life?

    But the individual becomes a seeker after she begins to entertain such questions.  Divine cravings may be prompted by any outward experience such as light tilting in through a window, but those cravings for spiritual reality can be satisfied only through soul-union, which is Divine Awareness.  The melancholy of spiritual desire is a first step to that Ultimate Awareness.

    Fourth Stanza:  The Nature of Reality

    When it comes, the Landscape listens –
    Shadows – hold their breath –
    When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
    On the look of Death – 

    After the strong spiritual desire for meaning, that is, comprehending the nature of Reality approaches the sensibility of the individual, that individual wished to cease the flux of all phenomena in order to listen—”be still and know that I am God” (KJV, Psalm 46:10).

    This speaker creates her drama by asserting that “Shadows  – hold their breath.”  Shadows holding their breath suggests a depth of quietness that is nearly unfathomable.  A miraculous awareness engulfs the speaker.

    The speaker has discovered that this “heavenly hurt,” this spiritual melancholy, transforms itself into the light of understanding.  Death loses its grip and meaning after such a level of awareness is achieved, no longer grasping the heart and mind of the individual.  

    After death has become merely a distant force, the spiritual aspirant sees more clearly all other forces that operate in her sphere.  The speaker has thus reached that inner Goal.  Death is beaten and given its place to Awareness. 

    The Science and Symbolism of Light

    That a simple “Slant of light” should engender a deep mystic state of awareness in this speaker is quite apt.  Regarding the nature of light, in his spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi [1], Paramahansa Yogananda has explained that the material universe is composed of light.  Many modern discoveries have revealed to humanity that the cosmos is composed of various expressions of one power—light—guided by Divine Intelligence.

    Paramahansa Yogananda has also explained that only differing rates of vibration account for the differing forms that exist throughout the cosmos:

    Modern science has shown that everything in the universe is composed of energy (light), and that the apparent differentiation between solids, liquids, gases, sound, and light is merely a difference in their vibratory rates.

    Also in his autobiography, Paramahansa Yogananda has explained in detail the nature of light, comparing it to other “waves”:

    Among the trillion mysteries of the cosmos, the most phenomenal is light. Unlike sound waves, whose transmission requires air or other material media, light waves pass freely through the vacuum of interstellar space. Even the hypothetical ether, held as the interplanetary medium of light in the undulatory theory, may be discarded on the Einsteinian grounds that the geometrical properties of space render unnecessary a theory of ether. Under either hypothesis, light remains the most subtle, the freest from material dependence, of any natural manifestation.

    The individual who has achieved the realization that “the essence of creation is light” is thus capable of operating the law of miracles.  The term miracle simply applies to any phenomenon whose operation science [2] has yet to discover.  

    What the soul knows through intuition will always be running miles and years ahead of what physical science [3] knows because physical science can explore and examine only the created cosmos not the Creator of that cosmos.  The soul, however, being a spark of the Creator, knows all that the Creator knows—either in fact or in potential.

    Emily Dickinson’s employment of light in this poem thus results from her deep intuitive awareness that light is the building substance of the cosmos.  Therefore, “light” becomes a symbol for that intuition that would continue to guide the poet as she continued to create her  mystical, metaphysical, metaphorical “garden” of poetry.

    Sources

    [1]  Paramahansa Yogananda.  Autobiography of a Yogi.  Self-Realization Fellowship.  Accessed June 3, 2026.
    [2]  Ard Louis.  “Miracles and Science: The Long Shadow of David Hume.”  The BioLogos Foundation.  March 12, 2018.
    [3]  Lisa Zyga.  “Quantum Mysticism: Gone but Not Forgotten.” Phys.org.  June 8, 2009.

  • Bridge of Eternity

    Image-Created by ChatGPT inspired by the poem
    Image: Created by ChatGPT inspired by the poem

    Bridge of Eternity

    The riddle takes the black tick and runs laughing
    Down the path to the doggy life of flukes.
    Don’t get me going if you won’t follow
    For questions may continue to erupt.

    Being strong may be illusive in the dusk.
    But weakness has its own sundowning
    Flipping and flopping like a big fish on a hook.
    Stay gutless if you can, while you ring the mold
    From your lips, as sunlight defies your spin.

    Righting each wrong will take forever,
    It will seem, as you sculpt each lie
    To connect your heart to a lifejacket
    Tacked onto the bridge of eternity.

    Love cannot seep through chicken wire
    And your smooth tongue will plaster your eyeballs.
    Satan will not pluck the weed of sorrow
    Even as you wait for feathers from the duck face—
    Whose nose will enjoy your scent?

    Don’t listen to me, for I have nothing to say
    To pigs and fleas, and I insist you defy matter
    By displaying both.  Selfish bloat and twitches.
    You resemble bitter fruit, displayed but seasonless. 

    The crimes we commit will tackle us
    And some of us will lie and try to avoid
    Our just deserts as if we deserve more. 
    But prison waits as sure as your moldy tongue
    And we cannot avoid what is coming to us.

  • Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died”

    Image: Emily Dickinson - Amherst College - Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 - likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
    Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet

    Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died”

    Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” dramatizes the speaker’s act of dying, as well as Dickinson’s mystical vision, which corresponds to yogic philosophical and religious teachings.

    Introduction and Text of “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died”

    Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” consists of four rimed quatrains with the rime scheme ABCB. Most of the rimes are slant rimes: Room-Storm, firm-room, be-fly. Sprinkled liberally with her signature dashes, the poem displays an appropriate breathless quality. 

    I heard a Fly buzz – when I died

    I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
    The Stillness in the Room
    Was like the Stillness in the Air –
    Between the Heaves of Storm –

    The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
    And Breaths were gathering firm
    For that last Onset – when the King
    Be witnessed – in the Room –

    I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
    What portion of me be
    Assignable – and then it was
    There interposed a Fly –

    With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –
    Between the light – and me –
    And then the Windows failed – and then
    I could not see to see –

    Commentary on  “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died “

    Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” dramatizes the speaker’s act of dying.  Even though it is unlikely that the poet had studied any Eastern philosophy as Ralph Waldo Emerson had done, her mystical vision corresponds nearly perfectly to Eastern yogic philosophical and religious teachings.

    First Stanza:  Breathlessness upon Dying

    I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
    The Stillness in the Room
    Was like the Stillness in the Air –
    Between the Heaves of Storm –

    In the first stanza, the speaker makes the odd assertion that as she was dying, she heard the sound of a fly.   The first instance of the breathlessness of the poem occurs immediately following the announcement, “I heard a Fly buzz.” Such a mundane statement if left unmodified! But the speaker then adds a real shocker, “when I died.” 

    Nothing could be more startling, nothing could be more Dickinsonian. The room at the time of her passing professed an eerie stillness, reminding the speaker of the quiet that settles briefly between the turbulences of a storm. The mention of the fly then hangs without further discussion until the last line of the third stanza. 

    Second Stanza:  Mourning the Passing

    The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
    And Breaths were gathering firm
    For that last Onset – when the King
    Be witnessed – in the Room –

    The speaker then depicts the people who are beginning their mourning of her passing: her loved ones had cried until they could not cry any longer.   The mourners seemed to hold their breath, waiting for that moment when the soul of the loved one makes its final departure from the body: such a momentous occasion herald’s the Divine Belovèd emissary to be in attendance. 

    The King refers to God’s angel, who will appear to escort the soul from the physical to the astral plane. While the escaping soul will be cognizant of the angel, most of the mourners probably will not be, but they will intuit the presence or “that last Onset,” which prompts the breath to tighten.

    Third Stanza:  Last Will and Testament

    I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
    What portion of me be
    Assignable – and then it was
    There interposed a Fly –

    The speaker asserts that she has completed her last will and testament, designating which “Keepsakes” should go and to whom; she has assigned to others everything that can be assigned.  Some time has obviously passed between making the will and the moment presently dramatized. 

    The immediate shift from something she must have accomplished earlier suggests the conflating power of the dying process, something like the old expression that one’s life passes before one’s sight at death. And then the “Fly” makes it appearance: “There interposed a Fly.” But she begins a new stanza to portray the importance of the “Fly.” 

    Fourth Stanza:  No Ordinary House Fly

    With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –
    Between the light – and me –
    And then the Windows failed – and then
    I could not see to see –

    The significant final stanza reveals that the fly is not a literal household fly but is a metaphor for the sound of the soul leaving the body. The line “With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz” has taken the place of the term “fly.” 

    In nature, flies appear to be black not blue.  However, as the human soul is existing its physical encasement, it experiences the blue that makes up part of the spiritual eye with its outer golden circle which rims the blue inside of which is a pentagonal white star.  The soul must travel through this eye, often referred to as a tunnel by those who have experienced near-death episodes and returned to describe their experience.

    The sound of a bumble bee or “fly,” which is a buzzing sound, is emanated by the coccygeal chakra in the spine.  As the soul journeys up the spine, it begins at the buzz chakra.  In very advanced yogis, the “buzz” sound might be described as the “om” sound.

    With the “Buzz” sound emanating from the departing soul beginning its journey from the coccygeal center, the physical eyesight begins to fail–”then the Windows failed / and then / I could not see to see.”   The speaker’s unusual claim “I could not see to see” underscores the fact that her light of vision is fading, and the final dash represents its total departure. 

    Evidence of Mystical Ability

    Although it is highly unlikely that Emily Dickinson had studied any yogic philosophy or techniques, her accurate descriptions of the process of death as well as her descriptions of experiences after death provide evidence that the poet possessed advanced mystical insight.

  • Like a Shadow

    Image: Created by Gemini inspired by the poem
    Image: Created by Gemini inspired by the poem

    Like a Shadow

    Shall I offer some well-etched question?
    What well-defined answer would you accept?
    Questions, like clouds shrouding the moon—
    Live in your ego like the dust of hooves
    Coating and smiting your blotched being.

    Who are you to finger my history?
    You, who remember nothing but crabs
    And jinxed fixes in the noon brain—
    Who, indeed, is your guide?
    Would you follow if you had a good one?

    You can scoff but the world will wait
    Until your karma rings your skin
    And pushes your mental kinks
    Into the abyss of drowning mold—
    Only then may you begin to laugh.

    On the other hand—if the first hand can abide—
    You may find peace in your self-induced dementia.
    No one will question your state of mind
    When you begin to sputter lies debunked by historians
    Who prove the real has outlasted the fake.

    The human shame that attaches to the weak
    Will not save you from yourself.
    Finding and clutching, running and falling,
    Delusion renders fools of us all, even as we suffer
    From falsehoods delivered by the powerful.

    The pockets of rich administrators limned with gold
    Will not suffice in the blue-black rhythm of maya.
    But you will not listen to any voice in the red moonlight
    Where spirit reigns but remains hidden by evil—
    You chose a tangled path, and it is will strangle you.

    Listening to frogs by the swamp may give some relief
    From certain evil acts, but you cannot hear them
    Thus you pretend they do not sing, that their chorus,
    Simply dreams in the land of silk and fleece.
    You may find that thorns await in the thicket.

    I do not know anything about the turtles you have killed.
    But I am sure they exist in the afterlife like a shadow.

  • Emily Dickinson’s “Color – Caste – Denomination”

    Image: Emily Dickinson - Amherst College - Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 - likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet
    Image: Emily Dickinson – Amherst College – Daguerrotype of the poet at age 17, circa 1847 – likely the only authentic, extant likeness of the poet

    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.

  • Arna Bontemps’ “God Give to Men”

    Arna Bontemps - Poetry Foundation - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/arna-bontemps 
    Image: Arna Bontemps – Poetry Foundation 

    Arna Bontemps’ “God Give to Men”

    Arna Bontemps’ speaker makes a statement about three classifications of humankind, employing subtle but bitter irony to further his point of view.

    Introduction with Text of “God Give to Men”

    Arna Bontemps’ “God Give to Men” disguises its bitter irony in a prayer, in which the speaker seems to be asking God for certain gifts for each of three classifications of human beings: “the yellow man,” “blue-eyed men,” and “black man.” 

    The speaker’s subtle but bitter irony reveals his contempt as he actually denigrates two of classifications.  The speaker does not reveal explicitly to which classification he belongs.  Thus, readers are given some latitude to interpret the significance of each gift the speaker wishes to bestow on each class of men.

    An interesting thought experiment might include reading the poem from three different perspectives.  That is, if the speaker is a “yellow man,” what do his gifts to that class mean?   Also, if he is one of the “blue-eyed men,” how does that change the significance of each gift?   And if he is a member of the “black  man” classification, how might that impact his choices?

    The Weakness of Stereotyping 

    It should be noted that the speaker engages heavily in stereotyping for all three classifications.   Such a weakness could encourage the thought that this speaker does not belong to any of the classifications to which he is referring; for example, perhaps he is a red man or a brown man of Hispanic or Middle Eastern heritage, or perhaps he is an Indian from India.

    By stereotyping each classification of man and men, the speaker offers nothing of substance regarding each, but the question does arise regarding the possible animus he holds for certain of the classifications.

    Singular vs Plural

    Interestingly, the speaker refers to the first classification as “the yellow man,” while designating the second group as “blue-eyed men.” Then he returns to the singular for the third group. That distinction from singular for the “yellow man” to plural for the “blue-eyed men” and then back to singular for the “black man” offers an issue for interpretation. 

    Might pluralizing the “blue-eyed” indicate the speaker’s level of familiarity with that group?  Perhaps he simply finds the plural more rhythmic in its employment of pronouns.  Or perhaps, it a simple rookie mistake. Such distinctions remain for each reader to decide.

    God Give to Men

    God give the yellow man
    an easy breeze at blossom time.
    Grant his eager, slanting eyes to cover
    every land and dream
    of afterwhile. 

    Give blue-eyed men their swivel chairs
    to whirl in tall buildings.
    Allow them many ships at sea,
    and on land, soldiers
    and policemen.

    For black man, God,
    no need to bother more
    but only fill afresh his meed
    of laughter,
    his cup of tears.

    God suffer little men
    the taste of soul’s desire.

    Commentary on Arna Bontemps “God Give to Men”

    In this poem, the speaker puts on display stereotypes that he holds regarding three classifications of humankind. His evaluation of each classification becomes apparent through the gifts that he asks the Creator to bestow on each.

    First Stanza:  The Yellow Man

    God give the yellow man
    an easy breeze at blossom time.
    Grant his eager, slanting eyes to cover
    every land and dream
    of afterwhile. 

    In the first stanza, the speaker asks God to grant “the yellow man” gentle winds as he engages his “slanting eyes” observing the beauty of “blossom time.”  He then asks that this yellow man be afforded the prescience to peer into the “afterwhile.”

    The two gifts that the speaker is asking from God for the “yellow man” reveal two stereotypes that Westerners entertain regarding their Eastern brothers and sisters.  The first gift of “an easy breeze at blossom time” shows that the speaker has been influenced by Japanese and Chinese fine paintings that depict delicate “blossoms.” 

    In his second gift to the “yellow man,” the speaker is engaging the stereotype that assumes all Asians adhere to the tenets of reincarnation and karma.  He wishes God to grant this Eastern man the ability to see with his “slanting eyes” “every land and dream / of afterwhile.” 

    The magnanimity of both these gifts, however, is diminished by the mere fact that both gifts are based on stereotypes, not the individual heart-felt desire that each human being be given appropriate gifts from God.  

    But the insincerity of these stereotypical gifts becomes more than merely trivial.  The speaker is denigrating the yellow man for engaging in the mere frivolity of light sense pleasure; that “easy breeze at blossom time” thus competes with more important life-sustaining vital gifts that the speaker could have assigned the yellow man.  

    Note also that a poet writing today would be pilloried for using an expression such a “slanting eyes” to refer to an Asian individual—that is, unless that poet is of the ilk of LeRoi Jones, aka Amiri Baraka or Arna Bontemps.

    Second Stanza:   The Blue-Eyed Men

    Give blue-eyed men their swivel chairs
    to whirl in tall buildings.
    Allow them many ships at sea,
    and on land, soldiers
    and policemen.

    For the “blue-eyed men,” the speaker asks that God give them skyscrapers with office equipment, as well as mighty navies and armies with “soldiers”  as well as “policemen.”   Again, as with the yellow man,  the speaker employs a mere stereotype to designate which two gifts he thinks God should grant.  The first gift that God should grant the blue eyes is the comfortable chairs in office buildings that are tall. 

    The speaker is presenting the stereotype that blue-eyed men are materialists who work in offices with “swivel chairs” in “tall buildings.”  The second gift of vast military force and police officers again stereotypes the “blue-eyed men” as interested only in power and force. 

    By honing in on these two particular gifts instrumental in the use of force, the speaker reduces those men with blue eyes to power hungry monstrosities.  As this classification is much less of a protected class in the 21st century, the poet writing today could get away with much more invective stereotyping even than this one.  

    Third Stanza:   The Black Man

    For black man, God,
    no need to bother more
    but only fill afresh his meed
    of laughter,
    his cup of tears.

    The speaker then asks God’s gift to the “black man” be nothing special—just let him laugh plenty and cry as needed.  This classification dictates that it suffer the other classes to precede it, as this classification remains humble.    But the humility remains a mere façade as the bitter irony of the speaker’s requests has demonstrated his scant knowledge of all three classifications. 

    A stereotype can describe only a surface level of qualities, for example, the notion that black people all have rhythm and love watermelon and fried chicken becomes ludicrous after observation of real individuals forming this classification.   Yet, less obnoxious stereotypes are just as insidious, as they stand in for individual knowledge and mask ultimate reality.

    Fourth Stanza:   Suffering Their Desires

    God suffer little men
    the taste of soul’s desire.

    The fourth stanza consists of only two lines that ask a generalized gift from God.   The speaker wishes that each man of each classification “suffer” “the taste of soul’s desire.”  Essentially, the speaker is asking God make sure each of these “little men” are afflicted with whatever punishment they deserve for entertaining the desires that they hold.  

    The speaker has assigned each classification of human beings a “soul’s desire,” but that desire has been determined by a very biased speaker, who holds bitter contempt for his other-racial fellows.

    Asking God to grant each group of mankind their wishes, the speaker assumes that the yellow man wants to experience pretty flowers and contemplate the after life and that the blue-eyed men wish to accrue wealth and power.

    However, black man needs nothing at all; he remains so humble that all he wants is just to laugh and cry as he sees fit.  Thus the speaker is also implying that heretofore the black man has been denied his ability to laugh and cry according to his dictates.  But now through his humble prayer, the speaker hopes that God will give these well-deserved gifts, and then all will be right with the world.

    Reaping Bitter Fruit

    Readers likely wonder what may be the significance of race for the black poet Arno Bontemps.  The following poem by Bontemps is one example that demonstrates the poet’s attitude toward race:

    A Black Man Talks of Reaping

    I have sown beside all waters in my day.
    I planted deep, within my heart the fear
    That wind or fowl would take the grain away.
    I planted safe against this stark, lean year.
    I scattered seed enough to plant the land
    In rows from Canada to Mexico
    But for my reaping only what the hand
    Can hold at once is all that I can show.
    Yet what I sowed and what the orchard yields
    My brother’s sons are gathering stalk and root,
    Small wonder then my children glean in fields
    They have not sown, and feed on bitter fruit.

    The speaker in the Bontemps “The Black Man Speaks of Reaping” portrays black labor as vast, careful, but undercompensated; the speaker’s harvest is stolen by others, leaving descendants to glean only bitter, inherited injustice.  

    While Bontemps did not spout bitter personal hatred toward his fellows of other races—as did LeRoi Jones, aka Amiri Baraka—Bontemps did often decry the limitations he perceived that were placed on the black race.  He then often expressed his bitterness with irony and satire.  

    In “God Give to Men,” Bontemps has crafted a speaker, who is demonstrating a bitter attitude directed toward the races of men not his own, and although the piece engages subtle irony, it loses its heft because of the focus on stereotypes.

    Painting of Arna Bontemps  - Betsy Graves Reyneau, 1888 - 1964 https://www.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.67.79
    Image: Painting of Arna Bontemps  – Betsy Graves Reyneau, 1888 – 1964