The Sunrise runs for Both –

The Sunrise runs for Both –
The East – Her Purple Troth
Keeps with the Hill –
The Noon unwinds Her Blue
Till One Breadth cover Two –
Remotest – still –

Nor does the Night forget
A Lamp for Each – to set –
Wicks wide away –
The North – Her blazing Sign
Erects in Iodine –
Till Both – can see –

The Midnight’s Dusky Arms
Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes
And so
Upon Her Bosom – One –
And One upon Her Hem –
Both lie –


    -Fr765, J710, Fascicle 34, 1863

The sky above unites us, even if we are in slightly different time zones. 

The Sunrise runs for Both –
The East – Her Purple Troth
Keeps with the Hill –

This is one of those poems that seems to me to have been written to a specific tune in Dickinson's mind. That 1,2,3 - 1,2,3 - 1,2 rhythm repeats 6 times and lends itself perfectly to melody. I often wonder if Dickinson composed poems to a melody in her head and suspect she did. 

The Sunrise runs. This reminds me of the lines from Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," which surely Dickinson knew. 

Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

In Dickinson's poem you get the impression that the sun is running quickly away from two viewers. But also, because of the syntax, you get a sense of it running "for," or towards, the viewers. And you also get another idea, of the the sun rising and running "for" the sake of the viewers.

It is worth noting that the word "Both" is repeated in each of the three stanzas here. And there is also the word "set" and "two" and "One and One" which further emphasizes the idea of a couple here.

With the word "Troth" in the second line you get a new set of ideas. First is the idea of marriage, or betrothal. Troth means "faith or loyalty when pledged in a solemn agreement." So this Troth, which is the royal color, purple, is a reflection of the seriousness of the relationship of this couple. But it also a reminder that the running sun will return again. It may be running, but it "keeps with the Hill." And the last word in the stanza is "still." The stanza starts with a run, but ends still. 

I like the idea of the hill reaching up toward the sun, the earth stretching towards the betrothal of the purple sky. 

The Noon unwinds Her Blue
Till One Breadth cover Two –

Remotest – still –

In the fourth line time has moved forward and it now noon. The color has changed too. It is blue. This poem is like a painting moving forward in time and shifting its color palette.  It unwinds in time. The blue is one breadth that covers Two. That idea of two becoming one is what I think this poem is ultimately getting at. This reminds me of another poem, this time by Shakespeare, from The Phoenix and The Turtle,

"Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was called.

Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together,
To themselves yet either neither,
Simple were so well compounded;

That it cried, "How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love has reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain."

I would guess Dickinson knew this poem too. "Till One Breadth cover Two –" That word "Breadth" has an expansiveness to it, as if the two were widening out into one. This feeling of width continues in the second stanza with the line "Wicks wide away." And it continues further in the the third stanza with the body of arms of night stretched wide one direction and the body stretched another. The overall impression is of two people who are united in an ever-expanding sky. 

The final line of of the first stanza "Remotest still" carries a wistful sense of distance that is mitigated by united sky. What does distance mean in that breadth of blue?

Nor does the Night forget
A Lamp for Each – to set –
Wicks wide away –

Here you get a sense of "hope" in this poem; light set in darkness. The moon in the sky has become a lamp. This is an ancient idea. In Beowulf, for instance, the poet speaks of God setting lamps in the sky when creating the world.

This poem maintains a tension between things being apart and together. It's got that contranymic sense of things moving apart and together at once. You see it in that line "Wicks wide away." The Two lovers are united under the wide sky, but they are still far away from one another. The word "wicks" here can be read as a noun or a verb. To wick is to remove water, and gives the sense of two lovers being moved apart. 

The North – Her blazing Sign
Erects in Iodine –
Till Both – can see –

This poem takes into account up and down, with that hill reaching up, and latitude and longitude with East and North. It covers all of space you might say. 

The blazing sign of the north is the north star, which shines in iodine. Iodine is the color of a dark shiny blue/black. 

raw iodine

The north star is, like "Troth," another symbol of truth, and guidance too. Here that sign is "blazing," until "Both" can "see." 

The Midnight’s Dusky Arms
Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes
And so

Now you have the loving idea of the embrace, of two halves of a sphere coming together to unite in the darkness, and the comforting feeling of Home. 

Those reading this poem biographically may see it, like David Preest does, as being about Samuel Bowles, who may have been in Europe at the time this poem was written, or, as Larry Barden does, as being about Charles Wadsworth, who was in San Francisco at this time. Neither are exactly on a different hemisphere of the earth, but both are far enough away that the night sky would just barely reach them at the same time it was reaching Emily on the other side of it. 

And so
Upon Her Bosom – One –
And One upon Her Hem –
Both lie –

The night stretches half way around the earth. On one side is the bosom of night and one side the hem of her skirt. To me "Her Bosom" could refer to another possible lover, maybe one who is not several times zones away, but seems to be so in the house next door, Sue Gilbert Dickinson, Emily's sister-in-law, with whom many believe she was in love. The word "Her" is mentioned four times in this poem. That along with "bosom" and "hem" give this poem a distinctly feminine air. Who knows, maybe Sue was away traveling when this poem was written? 

Biographical surmising aside, and bringing it back Home to the reader, this poem unites us to its writer beneath the colorful cycle of an ever-changing sky, Emily in her hemisphere, and we in this one. 

I love how "Two" has turned into "One/  And One" here, which speaks to our individuality and togetherness at once. Both.

        -/)dam  Wade l)eGraff