We miss Her, not because We see—

We miss Her, not because We see—
The Absence of an Eye—
Except its Mind accompany
Abridge Society

As slightly as the Routes of Stars—
Ourselves—asleep below—
We know that their superior Eyes
Include Us—as they go—

 

           -Fr771, J993, fascicle 34, 1863

Dickinson continues to surprise and confound us from poem to poem. You think we’d catch up with her, but we never do. I’ve read this one now a dozen times or so and I still can’t quite parse its meaning, let alone its syntax. But here’s the thing. Though I am trained by my society to be impatient to get to the meaning, I'm reminded over and over again with Dickinson that it truly is the attempt to limn the poem that gets me inside of it, that takes me into it. The more difficult it is, the more I get out of it. I glean something -personal- from inside the poetic eye of Dickinson. My Eye sees with hers, even if it carries its own blue tint.

Still, I want to bring to Prowling Bee the most accurate reading I can, the most clear, the most concise, to the best of my best understanding. So here it is:

We miss Her, not because We see—
The Absence of an Eye—
Except its Mind accompany
Abridge Society

We miss Her, not because we see can no longer see her eyes ("the Absence of an Eye") but because the mind that accompanies the eye ("its Mind accompany") being gone will lessen ("abridge") our social circle ("Society"). It’s not the eye that I'll miss, so much as the playful liveliness of the response of your mind, says the poet.

This poem is similar to Fr769, in that it "sees" the absence of seeing. In that poem the poet envisions the last vision. In this one, going a step further, beyond death, the poet sees past seeing.

Not only do we have a seeing of not seeing complicating the beginning of this poem, but we also have a triple negative in those opening two lines. “To miss someone” is the first negative, “Not because” is the second, and “absence” is the third. When you have a double negative you end with a positive, but with three negatives, you just end with a deeper negative, with the “missing.”

It’s not just the physical being that we miss, but, even more, the mind that animated the physical being.

Following from idea that “the absence of your mind abridges ( lessens) society" we are given a comparison:

“As slightly as the Routes of Stars—” An alternative line Dickinson leaves us in the fascicle is “As scarcely as the Flights of Stars”.

I like this second alternative even better because it gives us the sense of shooting stars, flying. The line as is, "as slightly as the routes of stars" gives us more of a sense of the stability of stars, and their barely perceptible movement. It's a whole different poem really, depending on how you read that line. In this version, the "mind accompany," gone above, is still affecting the poet, like the stars slow and steady movement. 

The poet is “asleep” below. I take this poem to be about someone who has died. The eye can no longer be seen and the mind behind that eye, sadly, no longer affects society. But, ironically, it is the mind below, the poet's mind, that is sleeping, not the one who has gone above. 

Ourselves—asleep below—
We know that their superior Eyes
Include Us—as they go—

In the poet’s dreams, the mind of the dearly departed is still affecting her like the superior stars do. Not only that, but the eyes of the beloved have become superior like the eyes of the stars, and both the stars, and the lover's mind that has joined them, take the sleeper “as they go.”

The stars, and the eyes of our lost, are enroute. They are superior to our eyes and taking us with them, if we will but follow.

       -/)dam Wade l)eGraff

star trails