'Twas
an everyday affair –
Long
ago as Christ and Peter –
"Warmed
them" at the "Temple fire."
"Thou
wert with him" – quoth "the Damsel"?
"No"
– said Peter, 'twasn't me –
Jesus
merely "looked" at Peter –
Could
I do aught else – to Thee?
F232
(1861) 203
Dickinson
compares something that clearly felt like betrayal to her to Christ’s betrayal
by Peter the night Christ was arrested. Earlier, Jesus had prophesied that
Peter would “thrice deny that thou knowest me” before morning, and Peter had
earnestly sworn he would never do so. After the arrest, he followed “afar off,”
finally catching up with the arrest party at the house of the High Priest where
Jesus had been taken. There he sat by a fire within sight of Jesus. Sure
enough, three people each identified him as a disciple, and three times Peter
denied it categorically: “I know him not” (Luke 22). The third time this
happened, Jesus turned and looked at him. He said nothing and no gestures are
mentioned. Exactly what the look was – sorrow, anger, hurt – we don’t know. It
seems likely, though, that it was sorrow and, Dickinson implies, forgiveness –
or at least acceptance.
![]() |
The Look |
Dickinson
relocates the scene to the Temple, perhaps for brevity’s sake. She also omits
the end of the story where Peter “wept bitterly.” The story, though, would have
been thoroughly familiar to readers of her day and still is to churchgoers and
even to anyone who ever watched a play (or the movie) about that night.
Although
this is a powerful story of cowardly denial of a beloved master, the poet
brings it up ever so casually. “’Twas an everyday affair,” she writes. “Long
ago….” You can imagine a friend or former lover approaching and asking if he could
ever be forgiven. No problem, you say, after all, Jesus didn’t castigate Peter;
he simply “looked” at him. And if Jesus were so accepting of that failure of
courage and devotion, how could I chastise you? It’s a bit of a guilt trip: she
may be withholding a bit of graciousness by comparing the forgetful guy to
Peter. But then, we don’t know what was forgotten so long ago. I suspect it was
something very important at the time.
The
first stanza refers to the forgetful person as “He” while in the second she
addresses him directly as “Thee” – a form of “you” that implies friendship, at
least. The shift denotes the forgiveness. What is left unsaid is whether or not
the forgiven one, like Peter, shows complete remorse.
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