No Bobolink – reverse His Singing

No Bobolink – reverse His Singing
When the only Tree
Ever He minded occupying
By the Farmer be –

Clove to the Root –
His Spacious Future –
Best Horizon – gone –
Brave Bobolink –
Whose Music be His
Only Anodyne –


     -Fr766, J755, Fascicle 34, 1863

The first line of this poem is funny. What would it mean to “reverse” your singing? By “reverse,” Dickinson means “will stop.” But why not just write “will stop” there? The word "reverse" leads you to imagine the bobolink song being sung backwards. So my first question is, why did she use the word “reverse?” My best guess is that it points toward the absurdity of life going backwards. Birds are going to do what birds do. The song goes on, no matter the circumstances. Creation is irreversible.

Another oddity is the line, “The only tree ever he minded occupying.” This implies that no other tree would do, which gives us a clue that it is a person, not a bird, that we are talking about here. A bird surely wouldn’t mind occupying a different tree.

The next funny move here is the way the last line of the stanza continues in the second stanza. “By the farmer be-// clove to the root.” The poem, itself, like the tree, has been noticeably cleft in two.

Alas, the tree has been cloven in two, and the “spacious future” and “best horizon” for the bird is gone. But at least it has its song for anodyne. (An anodyne is a painkilling drug.)

Song goes on no matter what, but singing, because it is anodyne, is especially useful in difficult times. Larry Barden, in his take on this poem, helpfully points out that Dickinson's second letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, L338, dated April 28, 1862, included this sentence:

"Mr Higginson, . . . I had a terror – since September – I could tell to none – and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground, because I am afraid.”

We can infer that the brave bobolink in this poem is Dickinson herself, and her poetry, her irreversible song. Her song is still moving forward 160 years later.

Life got you down? Be like the bobolink, this poem tells us, and keep singing.  It will be an anodyne. As another Bob pointed out, "One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."

-/)dam Wade l)eGraff

Notes:

1. There is an earlier poem in which Dickinson speaks of the Bobolink’s song as an “anodyne,” Fr88. 

2. There is a terrific website call Dickinson's Birds which features recordings of actual birdsong along with Dickinson’s poems. Click on the link to listen to the bobolink.

The Sunrise runs for Both –

The Sunrise runs for Both –
The East – Her Purple Troth
Keeps with the Hill –
The Noon unwinds Her Blue
Till One Breadth cover Two –
Remotest – still –

Nor does the Night forget
A Lamp for Each – to set –
Wicks wide away –
The North – Her blazing Sign
Erects in Iodine –
Till Both – can see –

The Midnight’s Dusky Arms
Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes
And so
Upon Her Bosom – One –
And One upon Her Hem –
Both lie –


    -Fr765, J710, Fascicle 34, 1863

The sky above unites us, even if we are in slightly different time zones. 

The Sunrise runs for Both –
The East – Her Purple Troth
Keeps with the Hill –

This is one of those poems that seems to me to have been written to a specific tune in Dickinson's mind. That 1,2,3 - 1,2,3 - 1,2 rhythm repeats 6 times and lends itself perfectly to melody. I often wonder if Dickinson composed poems to a melody in her head and suspect she did. 

The Sunrise runs. This reminds me of the lines from Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," which surely Dickinson knew. 

Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

In Dickinson's poem you get the impression that the sun is running quickly away from two viewers. But also, because of the syntax, you get a sense of it running "for," or towards, the viewers. And you also get another idea, of the the sun rising and running "for" the sake of the viewers.

It is worth noting that the word "Both" is repeated in each of the three stanzas here. And there is also the word "set" and "two" and "One and One" which further emphasizes the idea of a couple here.

With the word "Troth" in the second line you get a new set of ideas. First is the idea of marriage, or betrothal. Troth means "faith or loyalty when pledged in a solemn agreement." So this Troth, which is the royal color, purple, is a reflection of the seriousness of the relationship of this couple. But it also a reminder that the running sun will return again. It may be running, but it "keeps with the Hill." And the last word in the stanza is "still." The stanza starts with a run, but ends still. 

I like the idea of the hill reaching up toward the sun, the earth stretching towards the betrothal of the purple sky. 

The Noon unwinds Her Blue
Till One Breadth cover Two –

Remotest – still –

In the fourth line time has moved forward and it now noon. The color has changed too. It is blue. This poem is like a painting moving forward in time and shifting its color palette.  It unwinds in time. The blue is one breadth that covers Two. That idea of two becoming one is what I think this poem is ultimately getting at. This reminds me of another poem, this time by Shakespeare, from The Phoenix and The Turtle,

"Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was called.

Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together,
To themselves yet either neither,
Simple were so well compounded;

That it cried, "How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love has reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain."

I would guess Dickinson knew this poem too. "Till One Breadth cover Two –" That word "Breadth" has an expansiveness to it, as if the two were widening out into one. This feeling of width continues in the second stanza with the line "Wicks wide away." And it continues further in the the third stanza with the body of arms of night stretched wide one direction and the body stretched another. The overall impression is of two people who are united in an ever-expanding sky. 

The final line of of the first stanza "Remotest still" carries a wistful sense of distance that is mitigated by united sky. What does distance mean in that breadth of blue?

Nor does the Night forget
A Lamp for Each – to set –
Wicks wide away –

Here you get a sense of "hope" in this poem; light set in darkness. The moon in the sky has become a lamp. This is an ancient idea. In Beowulf, for instance, the poet speaks of God setting lamps in the sky when creating the world.

This poem maintains a tension between things being apart and together. It's got that contranymic sense of things moving apart and together at once. You see it in that line "Wicks wide away." The Two lovers are united under the wide sky, but they are still far away from one another. The word "wicks" here can be read as a noun or a verb. To wick is to remove water, and gives the sense of two lovers being moved apart. 

The North – Her blazing Sign
Erects in Iodine –
Till Both – can see –

This poem takes into account up and down, with that hill reaching up, and latitude and longitude with East and North. It covers all of space you might say. 

The blazing sign of the north is the north star, which shines in iodine. Iodine is the color of a dark shiny blue/black. 

raw iodine

The north star is, like "Troth," another symbol of truth, and guidance too. Here that sign is "blazing," until "Both" can "see." 

The Midnight’s Dusky Arms
Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes
And so

Now you have the loving idea of the embrace, of two halves of a sphere coming together to unite in the darkness, and the comforting feeling of Home. 

Those reading this poem biographically may see it, like David Preest does, as being about Samuel Bowles, who may have been in Europe at the time this poem was written, or, as Larry Barden does, as being about Charles Wadsworth, who was in San Francisco at this time. Neither are exactly on a different hemisphere of the earth, but both are far enough away that the night sky would just barely reach them at the same time it was reaching Emily on the other side of it. 

And so
Upon Her Bosom – One –
And One upon Her Hem –
Both lie –

The night stretches half way around the earth. On one side is the bosom of night and one side the hem of her skirt. To me "Her Bosom" could refer to another possible lover, maybe one who is not several times zones away, but seems to be so in the house next door, Sue Gilbert Dickinson, Emily's sister-in-law, with whom many believe she was in love. The word "Her" is mentioned four times in this poem. That along with "bosom" and "hem" give this poem a distinctly feminine air. Who knows, maybe Sue was away traveling when this poem was written? 

Biographical surmising aside, and bringing it back Home to the reader, this poem unites us to its writer beneath the colorful cycle of an ever-changing sky, Emily in her hemisphere, and we in this one. 

I love how "Two" has turned into "One/  And One" here, which speaks to our individuality and togetherness at once. Both.

        -/)dam  Wade l)eGraff

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -

And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him
The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light
Opon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let it’s pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master’s Head -
’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s
Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I’m deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live
He longer must - than I -
For I have but the power to kill,
Without - the power to die -



        -Fr764, J754, Fascicle 34, 1863



This is one of the most tantalizingly difficult, and yet powerful, poems of Dickinson’s oeuvre. Many terrific essays have been written about it. One of my favorite books, “My Emily Dickinson,” by Susan Howe, is centered around it. The poet Adrienne Rich has written beautifully about it. In this discussion, moderated by Al Filreis, the panel gets into some of its many difficulties. Filreis calls it the most difficult of all Dickinson’s poems. That's saying something with Dickinson, who is one of our most difficult poets.

Why does it intrigue us so much? The edgy danger of a loaded gun I reckon. Add the sexual metaphor of the gun going off and now you have sex added to the mix. Sex and violence. Who can resist?

There are as many interpretations of this poem as there are readers of it, and I recommend looking at several to get a feel for the possibilities. 

Because I’m most interested in the what a poem has to say to, and for, a reader, my own take on the poem focuses there.

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -

A life being compared to a gun in a corner is a metaphor for unreleased potential. We each have very powerful energy "locked" in us. For Emily, this potential is realized in her poetry. (Her canon, you might say, is her cannon.) This potential is often unlocked through relationship. Therefore, the gun stays locked and loaded in a corner until it becomes useful to someone, to whomever "owns" it. 

 Who is this “Owner” of the gun, this “Master?” I’ve seen interpretations in which “Owner” is read as lover, or as God, or as Self. I would add to that list: Reader. The Reader identifies the meaning of the poem, and thus unlocks its fire power. The poem just sits in a corner until that day.

There is a double meaning to “carried away” in the fourth line, a romantic notion of being chosen, and then getting carried away in a relationship. 

I love the way the repetition of the D sound in this first stanza mimics the plodding sound of gun fire. Read it out loud and imagine a gun shot every time you pronounce the D. 

The next stanza has a wonderful sound too, with the repetitions of "And."  "And now We roam", "And now we hunt," "And every time..."

And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him
The Mountains straight reply -

Continuing with the idea of the D sounds, notice the way the sharp sound of “Doe” echoes the "Day" of the first stanza, both of them coming emphatically at the end of the second line. There will be one more echo of this sound in the final word of the poem, "Die." 

The potential of the poet is realized in, among other things, speaking a truth that obliterates illusion. Illusions, you might say, are what get in the way of Love. That’s how I read this poem, anyway. It is about killing illusions for the sake of love. The poet “speaks for Him.” How do you know it is the Truth the poet is speaking? "The Mountains straight reply."

And do I smile, such cordial light
Opon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let it’s pleasure through -

If you take the killing in this poem literally, then the first line of this stanza reads as sinister. You smiled at the death of the doe? How could this possibly be “cordial?” But cordial makes a lot of sense if what is being killed is the “distance” between us. "Cordial light" has a double meaning then with the "light of reason." Our illusions are maddening. They can destroy the ties that bind us together. When you destroy the thing that destroys, the things that separate us, it is a great pleasure. "Vesuvian face" is a reference to Mount Vesuvius, the famous volcano that destroyed Pompeii. Dickinson uses this metaphor of a volcano often, and I think it generally represents the explosive heat of passion, of the love that roils beneath the veneer of our defensive shells. 

In the next stanza here come those "D" sounds again in full force:

And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master’s Head -
’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s
Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To guard, or protect, is one of poetry’s greatest powers. (Last night at the Poetry Project’s 2025 New Year’s Day Marathon reading, Jim Behrle, in the wee hours late night, read a very short poem that made this point. Today it is on my mind, and its sentiment is similar to Dickinson's:

Protection Spell for the USA

Oompa loompa doopity dee
Your poetry will protect me.

Oompa loompa doopity do
My poetry will protect you.)

Sharing an Eider Duck pillow points toward intimacy, but the poet makes the difficult distinction that guarding the beloved, the gun-like hardness of that, is even more important than the softness of a shared pillow. Dickinson is fiercely protective of her beloved.

To foe of His - I’m deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -

To foe of His (Yours) Dickinson is deadly foe. She is a hell of a shot. Her poetry aims to kill. Are you full of shit? Then get ready to face down Dickinson’s fire. Prepare to reckon with her emphatic thumb. 

Though I than He - may longer live
He longer must - than I -
For I have but the power to kill,
Without - the power to die -

This is the most difficult stanza to unravel. Here’s how I make sense of it. If the poem is the gun, it can’t die. (It is, after all, merely words on a page.) It can only kill. But it desperately wants to keep its Master (read: reader) alive. Since you, as a living breathing human with a heart-beat, are fragile, and have the "power to die," then the poem wants you to outlive it. You must try to outlive the necessity of this poem so you may use your locked potential to protect others in turn.


       -/)dam Wade l)eGraff

Notes:

It's interesting that the poem just before this one in fascicle 34, Fr763, overtly chooses hate over love. This poem skates awfully close to hate. But, in my reading at least, what is hated is the very thing which obstructs love.  It champions the murder of ignorance for the sake of love.