Were greater than Itself — though He –
Minutest of Mankind – should be —
And He — could reproduce the Sun —
At Period of Going down —
The Lingering — and the Stain — I mean —
When Orient have been outgrown —
And Occident — become Unknown —
His Name — remain —
F549 (1863) J307
This poem is fairly self explanatory and I could no better at explication than David Preest in his summery:
… Emily returns to the theme of poem 291 [F327, "How the old Mountains drip with Sunset"]. There she claimed that even the greatest artists could not properly reproduce the sunset. Here she says that if (the meaning of ‘And’ in line 4) an artist could reproduce the actual moment of sunset, his name would remain until the end of time, even if he were the ‘minutest of mankind,’ since he would be greater than nature itself.
Of course Emily herself attempted to reproduce the sunset in many poems.
But Dickinson does some nice poetic things that I think deserve appreciation. First, she varies from her more usual ballad or hymn form, adopting longer lines, using three-line stanzas, and having a (slant) rhyme scheme of AAA / BBB / BBB. The rhymes are nearly all long vowels which places a subtle emphasis on the last word of each line. There are long vowels heavily salted throughout the poem, slowing it down as if it were a long summer day or the sunset "Lingering" between the "outgrown" east of morning and the darkness in the west into which the sun sinks.
The most effective use of long vowels comes at the very end in the shortest line of the poem: "His Name – remain – ". Dickinson's use of word sounds underscores the meaning. The rhyme of "Name" with "remain" is very tight, too, with the similar-sounding "n" and "m" sounds reversed from one word to the other.
There's an assumption of artistic power throughout the poem. The artist who can reproduce a summer day is greater than a summer day. Perhaps Dickinson is winking at Shakespeare who famously began Sonnet 18 by asking, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" He ends by claiming that through his poem the subject of the poem will never age or wither; consequently she is superior to the summer day.
The artist will experience similar longevity, for the name of one who captures the sunset will live on – just as Shakespeare is as immortal as his creations. The artist and their art give life to each other.
I find Dickinson's use of "Stain" to describe sunset color quite interesting. Does she mean that a true rendering would include some reverberation of, for lack of a better word, sin? "Stain" in both her her dictionary and our modern ones means "discoloration" and "taint". Or is she simply referring to the streaks and swatches of sunset color?
That line about the Occident becoming unknown is a bit mysterious. The pairing of "Unknown" with "outgrown" is lovely and perhaps it mirrors life. We outgrow our morning and noon and fade into that last "undiscovered country".
ED touches on the same topic in "I send two Sunsets" -- a poem she sent to Susan Dickinson (although she doesn't claim immortalal fame for herself and finds the day's sunset "ampler").
ReplyDeleteOh that's a cute one ... and now you've made me read ahead!
DeleteA few thoughts:
ReplyDelete1- Stain could be a pun on staying and thus appropriate after lingering...
Looking up stain in other poems, it seams that for Dickinson stain had a particular red (or reddish) connotation as it is evident from her "over the fence" or the fantastic imagery of "the name of it is - Autumn".
2- Last lines of all stanzas contain internal rhymes or alliteration (Minutest/Mankind, Lingering/stain, Name/remain).
3- Can we consider an alternative rhyming scheme: AAA,BBC,BBC? If yes, does it indicate anything?
That's a good observation about "stain" -- thanks. As to the rhymes, after rereading the poem I think it is just very tightly written and might be characterized the way you suggest -- or the way I suggest. I do thing, though, that all of it sets up the last line so that it 'remains' on the lips a long time and echoes in the head a long time.
DeleteI wonder if the word "stain" here might be one of what some have called her "imageless images." "The Sunshine threw his Hat away" (Fr846/J794) for example, or "When it comes, the Landscape listerns - / Shadows - hold their breath" (Fr320/J258). We can't construct any of that in our mind's eye, but we feel it, don't we? We get it, though we can't translate it into literal meaning - or I can't anyway. I feel a little pang as I rean this outstandingly wonderful line. It's speech-like and immediate. I think of Bottom awakening fromm his "Dream" in A Midsummer Night's Dream, straining to express the inexpressible, failing, all in as moving a monologue as has ever been uttered on stage.
ReplyDeleteI feel the pang -- you said it very well. It sets that mood just as the sunshine threwing his hat or shadows holding their breaths set a very specific almost tangible mood. "Stain" coupled with "lingering" and sunset ... very rich and real while, as you say, non-literal.
Delete"When Orient have been outgrown —
ReplyDeleteAnd Occident — become Unknown —"
I think these lines are a continuation of the sunset described in the previous stanza. East and West become obscured when the sun has completely set and it becomes dark. Then, the last line brings us back to "The One that could..." And the reference to Shakespeare's famous sonnet seems possible.
Even in such a small poem as this there is a progression of time, from summer day, to lingering sunset, and then back again as it is repeated in poetry. It warms me to think of a never ending series of lovely summer days here in the middle of January!
Oh yes, I see. The East, or Orient, is "outgrown" first and then finally the sun sinks in the West or Occident, becoming "Unknown". The time chronology might be expanded farther and its geographical base expanded, too. The outgrown East was spilling westward. When the West is full and forgotten... well, that is a very long time from now -- and a very long time for fame. Which is the point.
Delete"a continuation of the sunset described in the previous stanza" bingo!
ReplyDeleteThe poem now works for me...thank you!
The word 'Stain' also suggests that Dickinson is describing the natural phenomenon of the lingering sunset in artistic terms, as if seen through the eyes of a visual artist who may render or 'reproduce' it in a wash of colour.
ReplyDeleteThe final stanza is semantically ambiguous but may suggest the passage of the sun across the sky from east to west, and that the artist or poet's name will endure far beyond the celestial movements of the day, or even beyond the final sunrise and sunset.
I am also drawn to the way that Dickinson casts the artist or poet as a quasi-divine creator with the capitalisation of 'He' in lines 3 and 4. The word 'One' also implies his uniqueness. The impression that the poet or artist will gain immortality through his creation(s) is suggested by the final rhyme of 'name' and 'remain' which creates an echo or continuation of sound, implying the artist-creator will live on, and become 'Exterior to Time'.
Why should he be the”Minutest I’d Mankind” do you think? Humility is not something she usually projects onto her divine or creator personnas, even if she means poets.
ReplyDeleteI was asking myself the same question. She might mean that mankind values power and wealth much more than artistic genius.
DeleteOnly two characters in ED’s poems rated capitals on “He””, “Him”, and “His”, God the Father/Son and Reverend Charles Wentworth. Clearly, “He – Minutest of Mankind” is not God the Father/Son. ED’s childhood “God the Father” had gradually morphed, in her mind, from warm trustworthiness to distant disinterest. Jesus still held her admiration, but her stumbling block with Him was resurrection into Heaven; she saw no credible evidence.
ReplyDeleteSo, what are we to make of this poem, F549? Sherwood (1968) posits four “definite periods” of development in ED’s poetry:
[1] “a period of questioning in which she tried and failed to find conclusive evidence of that immortal estate she was told would compensate her for all that God and the mores of nineteenth century Amherst made human souls and unmarried daughters of good family put up with here below;
[2] “a period where, in resentment and defiance fierce to the point of heresy, she chose and indeed created (doing both quite without his permission) her own god, the Reverend Charles Wadsworth;
[3] “a period of despair, in every sense of this word she herself chose so carefully; and, finally,
[4] “a period in which all her wrongs were righted, in which the adversity that had seemed to be malignant was revealed to be instructive, and revealed in the way her heritage, her schoolmistresses, and her father had told her she could hope for if not expect, through God's own grace.”
Sherwood, W.R., 1968, Circumference and Circumstance, p. 230.
Ignoring, for the moment, oversimplifications, ‘The One that could repeat the Summer Day’ fits firmly in Period 2.
With apologies to Susan K.
ReplyDeleteFor upwards of 100 years, ED scholars have puzzled over ED’s “I had a terror since September” letter of April 25, 1862, to T. W. Higginson. Among many possible proposed motivations is one that relates to this poem and requires some history [brackets mine]:
“Following the outbreak of hostilities between the North and the South [Fort Sumpter, April 12, 1861], patriotic enthusiasm [in San Francisco] was fanned to the combustion point. Dr. Scott [minister of San Francisco’s Calvary Presbyterian] refused to permit the American flag to be flown from Calvary Church and in his pastoral prayers prayed for the "Presidents" - thus including Jefferson Davis. On Sunday, September 22, 1861, he [Dr. Scott] was hanged in effigy and after a turbulent day, Dr. Scott found it best to resign and make immediate preparations to leave the city. Dr. Scott and his family sailed for Europe from San Francisco on October 1st not to return until November 1869.”
Did George Burrowes, a leading member of Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco who was familiar with Charles Wadsworth’s superstardom in Philadelphia, foresee Scott’s resignation and give Wadsworth advanced insider information about Calvary’s expected need for a new minister? If yes, did Wadsworth tell ED in September, 1861, that he was considering a “remove” to San Francisco? If yes, that would explain ED’s April 25 letter to Higginson.
Calvary Presbyterian Church voted on December 9, 1861, to call the Reverend Charles Wadsworth as their next pastor.
Anderson, C.A. and C.M. Drury. 1955. San Francisco Journal of George Burrowes. Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society. 33(3): 157-180.
“The One that could repeat the Summer Day —” (capitalized “One” = Wadsworth; see my previous comment on 11/22/23.)
ReplyDeleteBoth F325, “There came a Day — at Summer's full”, and this poem, F549, describe the same day, summer “solstice”, June 21, 1861. That day, ED and Wadsworth vowed (in ED’s mind, at least) to meet and marry in heaven. Pronouns beginning with Capital Letters refer to Wadsworth and are COMPLETELY CAPITALIZED in this comment.
F325, Stanzas S1 - S2
“There came a Day — at Summer's full,
Entirely for me—
I thought that such—were for the Saints—
Where Resurrections—be—
“The Sun—as common—went abroad—
The flowers—accustomed—blew,
As if no soul the solstice passed—
That maketh all things new.”
F549, S1
“The ONE that could repeat the Summer Day —
Were greater than Itself — though HE –
Minutest of Mankind – should be —”
F325, S3 - S5
The time was scarce profaned—by speech—
The symbol of a word
Was needless—as at Sacrament—
The Wardrobe—of our Lord—
Each was to each—the sealed church,
Permitted to commune this—time—
Lest we too awkward show—
At “Supper of the Lamb.”
The Hours slid fast—as Hours will—
Clutched tight—by greedy hands—
So—faces on two Decks—look back—
Bound to opposing Lands—
F549, S2
And HE — could reproduce the Sun —
At Period of Going down —
The Lingering — and the Stain — I mean —
F325, S6 – S7
And so when all the time had failed—
Without external sound—
Each—bound the other's Crucifix—
We gave no other Bond—
Sufficient troth—that we shall rise—
Deposed—at length—the Grave—
To that new Marriage—
Justified—through Calvaries of Love!
F549, S3
When Orient have been outgrown —
And Occident — become Unknown —
HIS NAME — remain —