Musicians wrestle everywhere –

Musicians wrestle everywhere – 


All day – among the crowded air


I hear the silver strife – 


And – waking – long before the morn –

Such transport breaks upon the town


I think it that "New Life"!



It is not Bird – it has no nest – 


Nor "Band" – in brass and scarlet – drest – 


Nor Tamborin – nor Man – 


It is not Hymn from pulpit read – 


The "Morning Stars" the Treble led


On Time's first Afternoon!



Some – say – it is "the Spheres" – at play!


Some say that bright Majority


Of vanished Dames – and Men!


Some – think it service in the place


Where we – with late – celestial face – 


Please God – shall ascertain!

                                                                               F229 (1861)  157

Music surrounds us, and were we sensitively attuned, we might listen beyond the noises of a waking town, singing birds, brass bands, or church hymns. The poet hears something transporting or transcendentally beautiful beyond the terrestrial sounds that crowd the air all day long. Even before she wakes, before dawn, she hears such rapturous noise that she’s convinced it must be the dawning of “’New Life!’”

            But if all these wrestling musical sounds aren’t birds and bands, etc., what is it? At the end of the first stanza Dickinson postulates that it is “New Life!” as if the world were being born anew each day. At the end of the second she suggests the music might be the song of “’Morning Stars’” on the first Afternoon of creation. This is a reference to the Biblical book of Job where God asks, “Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth…..when the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy?” (38: 4-7). A hymn written in 1849 by J. Montgomery refers to those verses. Dickinson may well have been thinking of such a hymn, led by “the Treble,” or the sopranos and other high voices. The Treble also suggests the Holy Trinity – the Three. The hymn begins:

The morning stars in concert sang,


When God created heaven and earth;


And earth and heaven with music rang,


When angels hail'd Messiah's birth.

Celestial planes and spheres are outside the
plane of earth, moon, sun and visible stars.
Each contributes its notes to a cosmic symphony

In the third stanza Dickinson refers to the Music, or Harmony, of the Spheres – an idea first introduced by Pythagorus (570 – 495 BCE).  This ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher felt that since heavenly bodies moved according to mathematical equations, and since music can be analyzed mathematically, that each celestial body had its own hum or set of notes. Consequently, although this music is inaudible to human ears, it would produce a heavenly symphony.

            The poet ends by suggesting that the musical “transport” she wakes up to is the singing of the Saints – the departed “Dames – and Men!” who now sing in heaven. This would be the “service” (as in church service) that she hopes will someday go in order to ascertain the heavenly source for ourselves.

          So take your pick: world re-born, heavenly hymn of praise, music of the spheres, or singing of the saints. I think it most likely that Dickinson felt all four are present should we only listen past the mundane noises to hear them.