In the Stranger's House—
A first fair Going—
When the Bells rejoice—
A first Exchange—of
What hath mingled—been—
For Lot—exhibited to
Faith—alone—
-F732, J702, Fascicle 35, 1863
If we took just the first stanza of this poem, we would have the outline of a romantic comedy. Shy (mute) strangers meet, but presto, before you know it there are wedding bells.
Or you could take this first stanza as a synopsis of a life: a child is a born, a “first Mute coming,” and then dies, “a fair going,” funeral bells celebrating her life and signaling the transition to heaven.
But the second stanza brings Lot into the poem and complicates it. Let’s look at the story of Lot. Here’s a synopsis of Genesis 19: 1-29. God promises Abraham that he will spare Sodom if just 10 righteous men can be found. He sends two angels to Sodom to see if they can find a few good men. They find one. The angels come across Lot, Abraham's brother, who bows down to them. Because he is a good man, he offers these strangers his home and makes a meal for them. The angels say thanks, but they will stay in the square. Lot insists, so they come with him. Meanwhile, Genesis 19:4 says, “All the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.’” Lot offers his virgin daughters to the men of the city instead, in order to protect the strangers. The men don’t want the daughters though, they want the attractive angels, and they tell Lot to get out of their way. The angels blind the men surrounding the house and tell Lot to leave the city with his daughters and wife. Since ALL the men in the city are trying to have sex with these angels, that means there are less than 10 good men, and therefore the city must be destroyed. Lot and his family are told not to look back. Lot’s wife looks back anyway and is turned into a pillar of salt.
There’s much more to this wild story, but the part Dickinson is focusing on here is merely the idea of treating strangers hospitably and the happy result of doing so. “A first Mute Coming—/ In the Stranger's House—” most likely refers to the angels staying with Lot. The angels are “mute” about their identity. I think Dickinson is getting at the idea here that all strangers are angels, if we could but truly “hear” and understand this.
“A first fair Going—/ When the Bells rejoice—” would then, following the story of Lot, be leaving Sodom before it is destroyed. I’m not sure why the bells would be rejoicing here if the city is being destroyed, but, for Lot, not to mention his many descendents, survival is cause for celebration.
A first Exchange—of
What hath mingled—been—
For Lot—exhibited to
Faith—alone—
So the first exchange, when Lot first met and mingled with the strangers, was the key moment. Lot, being a man of faith, takes in the strangers and that makes the difference.
If you read the syntax of this stanza at a certain angle, the exchange has been mingled for Lot. The word “mingled” seems to be doing triple duty here. Lot has A. mingled feelings about B. mingling with strangers because people can be C. a mingle of good and bad. But despite the mixed feelings, he has faith in their goodness anyway.
The moral of the poem appears to be that if you have faith in the goodness of strangers, then it will lead you to rejoicing bells. See the divine in people, and you will be led by people to the divine.
If we took just the first stanza of this poem, we would have the outline of a romantic comedy. Shy (mute) strangers meet, but presto, before you know it there are wedding bells.
Or you could take this first stanza as a synopsis of a life: a child is a born, a “first Mute coming,” and then dies, “a fair going,” funeral bells celebrating her life and signaling the transition to heaven.
But the second stanza brings Lot into the poem and complicates it. Let’s look at the story of Lot. Here’s a synopsis of Genesis 19: 1-29. God promises Abraham that he will spare Sodom if just 10 righteous men can be found. He sends two angels to Sodom to see if they can find a few good men. They find one. The angels come across Lot, Abraham's brother, who bows down to them. Because he is a good man, he offers these strangers his home and makes a meal for them. The angels say thanks, but they will stay in the square. Lot insists, so they come with him. Meanwhile, Genesis 19:4 says, “All the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.’” Lot offers his virgin daughters to the men of the city instead, in order to protect the strangers. The men don’t want the daughters though, they want the attractive angels, and they tell Lot to get out of their way. The angels blind the men surrounding the house and tell Lot to leave the city with his daughters and wife. Since ALL the men in the city are trying to have sex with these angels, that means there are less than 10 good men, and therefore the city must be destroyed. Lot and his family are told not to look back. Lot’s wife looks back anyway and is turned into a pillar of salt.
There’s much more to this wild story, but the part Dickinson is focusing on here is merely the idea of treating strangers hospitably and the happy result of doing so. “A first Mute Coming—/ In the Stranger's House—” most likely refers to the angels staying with Lot. The angels are “mute” about their identity. I think Dickinson is getting at the idea here that all strangers are angels, if we could but truly “hear” and understand this.
“A first fair Going—/ When the Bells rejoice—” would then, following the story of Lot, be leaving Sodom before it is destroyed. I’m not sure why the bells would be rejoicing here if the city is being destroyed, but, for Lot, not to mention his many descendents, survival is cause for celebration.
A first Exchange—of
What hath mingled—been—
For Lot—exhibited to
Faith—alone—
So the first exchange, when Lot first met and mingled with the strangers, was the key moment. Lot, being a man of faith, takes in the strangers and that makes the difference.
If you read the syntax of this stanza at a certain angle, the exchange has been mingled for Lot. The word “mingled” seems to be doing triple duty here. Lot has A. mingled feelings about B. mingling with strangers because people can be C. a mingle of good and bad. But despite the mixed feelings, he has faith in their goodness anyway.
The moral of the poem appears to be that if you have faith in the goodness of strangers, then it will lead you to rejoicing bells. See the divine in people, and you will be led by people to the divine.
-/)dam Wade l)eGraff
"Lot entertaining the two angels" by Manetti
P.S. The story of Lot was fascinating to dive into and left me with more questions than the poem. One of the many questions was why Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back? The consensus seems to be because salt preserves food. The idea of a pillar of salt here then is meant to symbolize preserving the lesson of not looking back. Now I know.
P.P.S. One wonders what Dickinson made of the homophobia of this passage, not to mention Lot's willingness to sacrifice his virgin daughters for the sake of strangers.
ED gives us few clues to decipher F732. She mentions the Old Testament character, “Lot”, and she emphatically repeats , “A first” in Lines 1, 3, 5: “A first Mute Coming”, “A first fair Going”, “A first Exchange”. Lot’s life before disguised angels arrived at his door was an exhibition of faith in God, just as the relationship between visitor and visitee, who had never met in person, had “mingled – been - ” by years of shared correspondence.
ReplyDeleteAn interpretation:
A mute (shy) person came to the house of someone he had never met, and they exchanged something that they had previously shared in correspondence but not in person. Like Lot whose steadfast faith in God spared his family when Sodom and Gomorrah burned, the visitor and visitee have built a trusting relationship by “Faith – alone -” during extended correspondence, and now they meet face-to-face. During this initially bashful but later joyful visit they exchange some tangible token of their love for each other, and then they part, “A first fair Going - / When the Bells rejoice –”, metaphorical wedding bells for a metaphorical bride and groom.
Sound familiar? ED recalls the memory of Wadsworth’s 1860 visit to Homestead at least seven times:
F194.1861. ‘Title divine, is mine’
F267.1861. ’Rearrange a "Wife's" Affection!’
F325.1862. ‘There came a Day—at Summer's full’
F349.1862. ‘He touched me, so I live to know’
F365.1862. ‘I know that He exists’
F596.1863. ‘Ourselves were wed one summer — dear —’
F732.1863. ’A first Mute Coming’
Several contemporary accounts attest Wadsworth was painfully shy among strangers and new acquaintances. For example, five months after Wadsworth’s death, ED wrote his best friend, James D. Clark (L994, August 22, 1882):
“Dear friend,
“Please excuse the trespass of gratitude – My Sister thinks you will accept a few words in recognition of your great kindness.
“In an intimacy of many years with the beloved Clergyman, I have never before spoken with one who knew him, and his Life was so shy and his tastes so unknown, that grief for him seems almost unshared. . . . .
“E. Dickinson.”
By sheer coincidence, about 1859, ED’s father had introduced Clark to ED when he came to Homestead for legal advice.
As for that tangible token, Stanza 6 of ‘There came a Day—at Summer's full’ (F325, 1862) tells us:
“And so when all the time had failed—
Without external sound—
Each—bound the other's Crucifix—
We gave no other Bond—”
In the two short stanzas of ‘A first Mute Coming –‘, F596, ED compressed the story of her seven-year love of Charles Wadsworth, which she documented in ’Rearrange a "Wife's" Affection!’ (F267, late 1861):
“Blush, my spirit, in thy Fastness –
Blush, my unacknowledged clay –
Seven years of troth have taught thee
More than Wifehood ever may!”
Whicher (1938) dates Wadsworth’s first visit to Amherst as March 1860, but ED’s poems say summer: ‘There came a Day—at Summer's full’ (F325, Franklin “about 1862”) and ‘Ourselves were wed one summer — dear —’ (F596, Franklin “summer 1863”).
Pollak (2004, page 245) dates Wadsworth’s 1860 visit to Amherst as August: “1860, In August, Charles Wadsworth visits Emily: ‘There came a day at summer’s full.’”.
Neither author provides independent verification of those contrasting dates other than ED's poems and letters. It is possible that both authors are correct and there were two visits in 1860.
Continued
ReplyDeleteWhicher (1938) further complicates the summer 1860 assumption by proposing, “There is no external proof that [Wadsworth] was near Amherst in the late summer of 1861, but there is much to lead us to surmise that he paid Emily a second visit at that time, [which would]. . . . account for Emily's statement to Higginson (L338, April 28, 1862) that she had felt ''a terror since September, I could tell to none.”
• Miller, Christanne and Domhnall Mitchell. 2024. The Letters of Emily Dickinson Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.
• 'George Frisbie Whicher, 1938. A Critical Biography of Emily Dickinson, A Special Edition with an Introduction by Richard B. Sewall, Amherst College Press, 1992.
• Pollak, Vivian R. 2004. A Historical Guide to Emily Dickinson (Historical Guides to American Authors) (p. 245). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.