We
pray — to Heaven —
We prate — of Heaven —
Relate — when Neighbors die —
At what o'clock to Heaven — they fled —
Who saw them — Wherefore fly?
Is Heaven a Place — a Sky — a Tree?
Location's narrow way is for Ourselves —
Unto the Dead
There's no Geography —
But State — Endowal — Focus —
Where — Omnipresence — fly?
F476
(1862) J489
Dickinson
scoffs at the idea that the prayed-to, chattered-about heaven can be considered
a specific place that our souls can fly off to. That, she says, is a
"narrow way" to think, germane only to living people. We require
places where our bodies can meet, survive and thrive; somewhere to put down a
coffee cup. But for the dead, she points out, " There's no
Geography." Without a body what
need for planet, cloud, or table? The freed soul's environment or milieu is no
doubt much richer than one limited by bodily abilities.
Dickinson pictures it as a state of
being – not cast adrift, but under some "endowal" or bestowal (which
implies a Beneficence); there is "Focus," too, or unity of purpose
and awareness. A state of being endowed with focus – If this sounds less like
Christian doctrine than Eastern mysticism, it may well spring from Ralph Waldo
Emerson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, both prominent Transcendentalists that
Dickinson deeply admired – as well as from Thoreau and Margaret Fuller whose
books she probably read.
Her final question parallels the
first, "Wherefore fly?" That question asked to which
destination the soul was headed – heaven or hell or elsewhere. The last line is
about something else entirely. Where, if all is "Omnipresence" – or
if even just the soul in question now enjoys omnipresence – or if God and his
heaven are omnipresent, would a soul possibly fly? It would be, or at least be
within, everything at once.
Dickinson
wants the reader to work for meaning in these last lines. The elided words and
dashes create a provocative sense of ambiguity and vagueness. Meaning seeps out
as one thinks of the words in various combinations with those around it or in
their unitary connotations. The meaning, like the soul, becomes diffuse and
protean.
 |
I used this picture with an earlier
Dickinson poem that featured"
a very geographic heaven |
In contrast, the first lines aim for
clear meaning. Dickinson uses parallel structures, repeated and rhyming words,
and simple diction. The second stanza complicates the breezy treatment of
Christian death narratives. The poet builds an argument against the portrayal
of Heaven (or Hell, etc.) as a unique place. The ponderous second line
interrupts the quick flow of the surrounding lines and provides the key insight
of the poem. The last two lines slow to a crawl. There's no way to skip through
words like "Endowal" and "Omnipresence" – particularly if
they are surrounded by dashes.
Stop
and think, people! it suggests. And that's odd from this poet who has
written more than a few poems about the physical attributes of heaven and
the saints and angels who inhabit it.