Too little way the House must lie

Too little way the House must lie
From every Human Heart
That holds in undisputed Lease
A white inhabitant—

Too narrow is the Right between—
Too imminent the chance—
Each Consciousness must emigrate
And lose its neighbor once—


     -F902, J911, 1865

Dickinson often does a funny thing where she speaks of her subject in a purposefully indirect way.

House…undisputed Lease…white inhabitant…Right…emigrate…neighbor? For a minute I thought this poem had something to do with white home owners and immigrant rights. This isn't a very Dickinsonion poem though, so we are suspect. Sure enough, this appears to be a kind of ruse. It seems as if the poem purposely misdirects you. 

This misdirection does a few things. First, I think it is a way of making a meta-commentary on both the subject and the metaphor. It adds a layer of meaning and gives a deeper dimensionality to the poem. I think this poem may be making a side-swipe, for instance, at the narrow-mindedness of the privileged class.

Another thing about this misdirection is that, though frustrating, it adds to the power of the poem to pull you in. That puzzle-loving part of us is awakened. We want to see the puzzle, and therefore the poem, completed. But Emily doesn't make it easy. 

After a few readings of the poem, paying attention to all of the clues at our disposal, we come to the conclusion that House means grave. Once we see this, then “white inhabitant” becomes "corpse." Okay, we have a starting point. 

Too little way the House must lie
From every Human Heart

Life is short and the grave is close. “Too little the way the House must lie from every human heart.” The heart brings in the idea of love, and the possibility that death being referred to is the death of a beloved.

That holds in undisputed Lease
A white inhabitant—

Does "That" refer to the heart or the grave? Both, perhaps. Both hold in undisputed Lease a body, in memory and the second in physical residence. 

Death as a permanent undisputed lease is a provocative idea. The idea of paying “rent” here has a dark humor. It makes me think about how difficult it is to pay rent when you are living. Your rent is always in “dispute” when you are alive.

The double-entendre of "white inhabitant" is arch. What do you own now that you are dead white men? Just the space in the ground that you occupy.

Too narrow is the Right between—

This line seems to refer back to the “Too little way” in the first line. If it does, then it means something like, our life-time is too narrow between nothingness and death. In this case, we have a kind of “Right” to life, though it is a very limited one. It also carries the echo of "Right now." This is your in-between.

The line also could easily mean the “narrow” space in the ground, the space of the grave, where the body has its lease. In this case “Right” could mean a number of other things. 

It’s a bit mind-boggling how Dickinson pulls off simultaneous readings. Is the narrow space between time or space? 

Too imminent the chance—

So then at this point in the poem the “chance” that Dickinson is talking about is pretty hard to pin down. It might mean something like the “chance” to really live while we still can. This is the reading I prefer, which, I suppose, exposes my optimistic idealism. 

Because if the thing that is imminent is the House, the grave, then it might also be referring to the chance of death.

There is another option here, which is introduced in the next lines about emigrating. "Chance" could refer to escaping the grave after death, the chance of the spirit released into Paradise.

Each Consciousness must emigrate
And lose its neighbor once—

These lines might mean that since our consciousness must emigrate to the house of the grave, we should embrace our neighbors while we can. 

But, following the other track of meaning, these linest could mean that each consciousness must (should) emigrate from the grave to Paradise and lose the neighborhood of corpses it once had.

If you take “life” as the “Right” in this poem,  then “once” is poignant. We only get one shot. If you take “death” as the “Right” in this poem, then the “once” refers to the joy of leaving this earth and going to paradise, like in the old spiritual, "Some bright morning when this life is over, I'll fly away."

I far prefer the former reading, the one which seems to say take the chance of life while we still have it. But the latter reading, the wish to move emigrate from the House of the grave, may be more in line with Dickinson’s meaning.

And then, on top of this, there is that subtext about white ownership and immigrants, which also seems to be at play in the subtext of this poem. 

      -/)dam Wade l)eGraff