Professor Lankford
English 48 B
March, 2011
“Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice
I, just wear my Wings-
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Out little Sexton- sings.” (81)
“As well as writing over 1,700 poems, Emily was a prolific letter writer; these letters giving her the opportunity for contact with others, that in other respects she denied herself. Her letters show her love of language and are often not too dissimilar to her style of poetry. She went to great length to express her personal sentiments of gratitude and love to others.” (Describing Dickinson from Biography Online)
Once again, pages 85-91 consist of more poems written by Dickinson. They are more of her great works, and it is where you can find one of her most famous lines “My life had stood a Loaded Gun-” (pg. 89, ln.1)
Poem 519
“This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me-
The simple News that Nature told-
With tender majesty
Her message is commited
To Hands I cannot see-
For love of Her- Sweet- countrymen-
Judge tenderly- of Me” (87).
When I read this poem I automatically thought of Dickinson’s life of confinement in her home. In my eyes, her “letter to the world” represent her thoughts that she wanted to share with the rest of the world. Most of her life was spent upstairs in her room, and so this poem is very rare because it is a part of Dickinson that wasn’t hidden. It seems like Dickinson knew that her work would be read in the future, or at least she wrote with the intention that one day her words would be read because she is talking to the audience when she writes “For love of her- Sweet- countrymen- Just tenderly- of Me”. She is writing her poem directly to her audience and basically saying “please don’t be too harsh when judging my work”.
I also included the very first quote because a really funny thing happened when I read it. I couldn’t understand the quote, and spent a long time trying to interpret what it meant. My mind was literally thinking of 20 different scenarios, and I was going mad trying to understand the language. My little brother, who is 10, was in the room with me, and asked what was wrong. I told him how I was learning about Emily Dickinson and I couldn’t get this one poem. He asked me to read the poem to him and maybe he could help. I thought it was so cute that he was trying to help, and thinking that he would not understand it, I read it to him jokingly. But the joke was on me! A few seconds after I finished reading the poem he gave me a 5 minutes summary of what the poem meant...and everything he said made total sense! His interpretation was beyond my own, and I was amazed that someone so young could understand something so difficult. It just goes to show that Dickinson’s work can be interpreted by all walks of life!
