A single Screw of Flesh

A single Screw of Flesh
Is all that pins the Soul
That stands for Deity, to Mine,
Upon my side the Veil — 

Once witnessed of the Gauze —

Its name is put away

As far from mine, as if no plight

Had printed yesterday, 

In tender – solemn Alphabet, 
My eyes just turned to see, 
When it was smuggled by my sight
Into Eternity —

More Hands — to hold — These are but Two 
One more new-mailed Nerve 
Just granted, for the Peril's sake —
Some striding — Giant — Love — 

So greater than the Gods can show, 
They slink before the Clay, 
That not for all their Heaven can boast 
Will let its Keepsake — go

                                                                                          F293 (1862)  263 

I’ve read this poem numerous times and still find it elusive. There is an interesting transcendental aspect to the two aspects of the soul: the first, the part that “stands for Deity,” or what Emerson might call the Oversoul, would be the eternal and divine soul; the other is the rational and spiritual essence of each individual soul. A “veil” separates the two. Death rends the veil.

Veil Nebula: part of the Cygnus constellation, originating
from a supernova some 1470 light years away

         Dickinson writes that she once caught a glimpse of this “Gauze,” implying a near death experience or perhaps an intense transcendental moment. Rather than becoming more drawn to the eternal side, however, she distanced herself from it, not at all ready for the divine side.  

        We see that “yesterday”—perhaps a literal yesterday or perhaps a longer time ago than that—she made (plighted) some sort of vow. It was “printed… / “In tender—solemn Alphabet; spelled out, that is, from A to Z. She saw it “smuggled” into Eternity as if some heavenly scribe was hastening to show her plight to the Deity. The vow seems to have been in response to the crisis she calls “the Peril” in the fourth stanza. The strength of her experience and her language suggests this may have been a crisis where she felt death was near or perhaps desirable. 

        In response to her plight, as I read it, the Deity granted her three gifts: “More Hands” to support her; emotional strength shown metaphorically as steel armor for her nerves, needed because of the Peril; and a great big “striding” “Love.” Give  me some of that! I imagine the poet flooded with transcendent love, but it may also be love from  a beloved person (living or even recently departed). 
        This must have been a flood of love of life. It doesn’t come from any god essence for it is “greater than the Gods” efforts. In fact, the gods “slink” before our human “Clay” flesh: we are so attached to ourselves, to being alive here and now on earth, that nothing in “all their Heaven” could lure us to the other side of that veil. This idea of gods slinking is remarkable and it forces me to realize that I don’t know what Dickinson was getting at when she talked about the “striding—Giant—Love.” What kind of love, and from whom? And is it really God or the gods or some more distant “Deity” who grants the “new-mailed Nerve?