Jesus!
thy Crucifix
Enable
thee to guess
The
smaller size!
Jesus!
thy second face
Mind
thee in Paradise
Of
ours!
-
F197 (1861) 225
Life
can bring a heaping measure of pain, but Christians hope that Jesus will help
them bear it. Dickinson isn’t asking here for Jesus to take the pain away, but
only that he understand. She suggests that because of the agony he suffered
during crucifixion he can “guess” the smaller pain of our human hurts. It
doesn’t sound like a strong prayer –
there is probably little doubt among Christians that Jesus understands our
pain. No need to remind him about his time on the cross.
In
the second stanza she is asking that his “second” resurrected face reminds him
in heaven of our human faces. “Faces,” I take here mean more than faces but
stand in for our human, fleshly selves. I think she’s implying that there is an
actual body in Heaven.
The
poem is configured as a prayer with the first two lines of both short stanzas
written in parallel structure. As usual, Dickinson cuts words and syllables to
get the utmost concision. “Crucifix” is used rather than “crucifixion”; “Mind”
is used rather than “remind”; “The smaller size” is used rather than “The
smaller size of our pain.” I sometimes think of her creative process as akin to
long-distance travelers who, forced to lighten their load, toss everything they
can out the back of the covered wagon. Her extra words and syllables litter the
prairie behind her.
the "second face" also evokes the veil of veronica
ReplyDeleteI had to look up the reference; very interesting! Thank you.
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