Just so – Christ – raps –
He – doesn't weary –
First – at the Knocker –
And then – at the Bell –
Then – on Divinest tiptoe standing –
Might He but spy the hiding soul!
When He – retires –
Chilled – or weary –
It will be ample time for me –
Patient – upon the steps – until then –
Heart – I am knocking low
At thee!
F263
(1861) 317

Jesus
does finally give up. He gets “Chilled – or weary.” That’s a direct
contradiction to the first stanza where “He – doesn’t weary,” but some folks are
just hard cases. Best to move on. After all, no one will be saved against their
will. Ah, but waiting in the bushes has been the patient narrator of the poem.
Her patience rewarded, she takes her turn at the door. The main difference
between her and the departing Christ is that unlike him, she is knocking at her
beloved’s heart. In the last two lines she calls out to it: “Heart – I am
knocking low [softly] / At thee!” Her patient persistence is contrasted to
Christ’s: she, one infers, loves the occupant of the house more than Jesus. And
unlike him, she is not going to go spying.
The
image is very pictorial. Many people in Christian lands have seen various
pictures of Jesus knocking at the door. One of the earliest was painted by William
Holman Hunt in 1851 and so Dickinson may well have seen it. Judith Farr makes
this point in The Passion of Emily Dickinson, discussing
the intense interest and controversy surrounding this painting when it was
shown in New York and Boston in 1857. She adds that this poem “was probably
written for Sue (Dickinson's beloved best friend [for years, though not always] and
sister-in-law), to whom it was addressed and sent.”
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