How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand,
Until a sudden sky
Reveals the fact that One is rapt
Forever from the eye –
Members of the Invisible,
Existing, while we stare,
In Leagueless Opportunity,
O'ertakenless, as the Air–
Why didn't we detain Them?
The Heavens with a smile,
Sweep by our disappointed Heads
Without a syllable –
F342
(1862) 282
 |
| Stars sweeping around the night sky |
It begins with both “Men” and “Pleiads” being “noteless” – or clueless about what happens after death (or clueless about the big questions in general). The Pleiads are included, perhaps, because one of the Seven Sisters, Merope, went missing. Actually, this one star is there but rarely visible to the naked eye. But perhaps “a sudden sky” would have a special clarity that allows her to be seen. It might show that she – and the missing dead – are “rapt”: taken up into heaven and transformed.
In such a moment of insight and clarity we suddenly realize that in some way all of our dead are “Existing, while we stare” blindly at the sky. It’s one of those camping-out thoughts except that Dickinson says so much more in this poem. The dead, now “Members of the Invisible,” are so far out of our reach that they are overtakenless, just as the air cannot be overtaken. They are no longer limited by the world and by human bodies, but in a state of “Leagueless Opportunity.”
“Why didn’t we detain Them,” the poet asks. We could learn so much from them. We might be able to keep them around in some form or another. We might just be able to keep them in sight. But the “Heavens” won’t tell. They give a smile and just keep revolving without so much as a “syllable.” It’s a humbling and frustrating thought, but I like the idea of the heavens sweeping by with all the host of “the Invisible” in train, far far from any earthly influence.
I wonder if she is referring not to death and those who have died but her own-- our own-- thoughts, Members of the Invisible, that exist while we stare but can't be grasped, though we try. Heaven can't be grasped because it doesn't even have a syllable. We are left rapt as the sudden sky but speechless. I believe her poems arrive from or are revealed from this sudden sky.
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice way of reading the poem -- adds another layer of thinking.
DeleteShe seems to understand the idea of averted vision- where due to the rods and cones in the eye, it is often impossible to “see” something “while we stare” directly at it, making it “overtake less” unless we see it “slant”. Viewing the Pleiades is the typical experiment people use to illustrate the phenomenon. She may have been aware of this because of her eye troubles and dealing with ophthalmologists, do you think?
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting -- I never knew anything about the Pleiades experiment. I can't speak as to what would be known about it to her and to her time.
DeleteBut I did realize I muffed the first line on 'noteless': it means here 'undistinguished' or 'unnoticed' (Lexicon). That makes the Merope reference more plausible.
Once "noteless" is understood as "unnoticed" or "overlooked," not clueless, much in stanza one comes clear. We overlook other human beings (Men) and heavenly bodies (Pleiades), unless a sudden sky reveals their absence. I wonder if Dickinson had in mind the simple phenomenon whereby daylight obscures starlight. The analogy squints a bit, because sunlight doesn't make humans disappear, but a light that reveals/conceals is still a poignant paradox. The killer tonal turn takes place with the plaintive "Why didn't we detain Them?" Before that, the speaker's pretty disinterested. A variant, "retain," pierces even deeper. Heaven, of course, don't answer (to borrow one of Dickinson's lovely and deliberate solecisms).
ReplyDeleteIn re-reading the poem with your insightful notes in mind, I fastened on the line 'Existing, while we stare'. There's a sort of reverberation between seeing/noting and existence. On earth, light enables seeing; in the heavens, light must be behind the subject to be visible to earth; otherwise, as you point out, sunlight conceals rather than reveals.
DeleteAnd that reminds me of my most recent post, Fr 679, where
'Sunrise grows so near
That We can touch the Spaces'
What becomes visible becomes tangible
If we have very good eyesight and very clear skies, we can see the Seventh Sister, but minor aging or a little air pollution hide her from our sight. We notice a star or person missing when we stop seeing them.
ReplyDeleteLike air, the Seventh Sister and departed souls exist, we hope, but are invisible. Why didn’t we detain them?
The heavens smile at our naïve question, sweep endlessly on over our disappointed heads, and ignore our hopeless search for meaning.
"How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand,
ReplyDeleteUntil a sudden sky
Reveals the fact that One is rapt
Forever from the eye –"
ED Lexicon
"Rapt": [word play on “wrapped”] bound; covered; encased
Line 2, "One [God] is rapt
Forever from the eye –"
ED realizes she will never literally see a soul escape from a dying person. There is no hope of ever finding physical evidence, neither sight nor sound, corroborating an afterlife.
And of course the Rapture figures into the meaning, look and sound of 'rapt'
Delete