How the Waters closed above Him

How the Waters closed above Him
We shall never know —
How He stretched His Anguish to us
That — is covered too —
Spreads the Pond Her Base of Lilies
Bold above the Boy
Whose unclaimed Hat and Jacket
Sum the History —


       -F941, J923, sheet 17


A boy has drowned. All that is left behind is his hat and jacket. That’s the scenario. It’s what Dickinson does with that scenario that leaves us shaking our heads.

How the Waters closed above Him

What might Dickinson mean by this line? She means, first, the literal experience. She is wondering how the boy experienced the loss of air. But the word choices give us more to consider. Waters closing above one is ominous. It’s as if the water itself has agency and is purposely closing over the boy. Even the plural of Water adds to the effect. She could have, and almost anybody else would have, written it singular: Water. But the plural adds to the feeling of being overwhelmed. And it is also notable that this closing is coming from “above.” In this first line Dickinson may be speaking literally about an actual drowning, but she takes us into the metaphoric realm of the psychological and even the spiritual.

We shall never know —

We can’t ever know what the terrible experience of drowning, or dying, feels like for another. We are each  alone in our suffering.

How He stretched His Anguish to us

I’m reminded here of the Covid pandemic. Over 20 million people died world-wide and many of these people were quarantined and alone, separated from family. Each dying person was surely stretching Anguish out as they were struggling for breath. They must’ve felt so utterly alone in their suffering. I can only imagine the crisis of faith in such a circumstance. 

That — is covered too —

This line is saying that the experience of reaching for help in suffering cannot be known by those on shore, as it is covered up. The word “cover” here adds to the ominous suffocating feeling that the poem evinces. There is a pun here too because the poet is “covering,” like a reporter, the experience of panic. So “cover” has at least three layers here; drowning and being “covered” by water; experience being unknown and “covered” over, and the revelation of the unknowability of another’s experience being “covered” by the poet..

Spreads the Pond Her Base of Lilies

This line is so deeply Dickinsonian in its implications.

It appears that the same force that closed the waters above the boy is now spreading lilies above his head. That phrase from F935 comes back to me here, "harrowing Grace.” Out of terror sprouts beauty. This beauty is, on one hand, unfeeling, and certainly no help to the dying boy. Nature goes on being beautiful in the face of terror which is somehow even more terrifying.

On the other hand (the hand of the poet) these lilies are laid out in sympathy. The carefully wrought beauty of this poem is like a pond spreading lilies above the boy. It is an elegy. “Spreads the Pond (Poet) Her Base of Lilies.”

Bold above the Boy

Because the B sound itself is so Bold, we can’t help but notice its preponderance here, Base/Bold/aBove/Boy. It sounds like bubbles coming up from under the water!

The word Bold here is perfect. To be bold can have a positive connotation, as in "to be courageous." Sometimes it can have a negative one though too, as in "to be rude." Both ideas seem to be at play here. Dickinson’s sympathies are with the boy, but her understanding is with the eternal return of nature. The poet seems to be admonishing the Waters though (and maybe herself) for being so bold as to spread beauty in the face of tragedy.

Whose unclaimed Hat and Jacket
Sum the History —

It’s a ghostly image, the hat and jacket left behind. It adds to the uncanny effect of the poem.

There's a symbolic meaning of “hat and jacket” too I think. The things that protect and keep us warm in life go unclaimed in death. Together they “Sum the History.” This is the Sum of what we amounted to in life, the vestments (the attachments) that kept us warm against the impending cold.

"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry," wrote Dickinson in a letter. This one is freezing cold. And yet the beautiful lilies boldly remain, for what it's worth, as well as that Hat and Jacket. 

      -/)dam Wade l)eGraff

Monet's Water Lilies