Nature and God—I neither knew

Nature and God—I neither knew
Yet Both so well knew me
They startled, like Executors
Of My identity.

Yet Neither told—that I could learn—
My Secret as secure
As Herschel's private interest
Or Mercury's affair—


-Fr803, J835, early 1864


Nature and God—I neither knew

What a start to the poem, to skip right past "belief" and to admit that you know nothing of Nature and God. It reminds of what the oracle of Delphi said about Socrates: he was the wisest man in the land for knowing he knew nothing.
.
And yet!

Yet Both so well knew me

Both Nature and God so well know Emily. The person is formed from and by nature, and from something more, too, perhaps, God. But who or what is God? That is up to you to not know.

They startled, like Executors
Of My identity.

Executors has a hint of "execution." It is a startling word. In the undercutting doubleness of the word "executors,"we see, perhaps, a bit of Dickinson’s rebellious independence flare up.

But, there is also this startling idea; our identity is executed not by our will, as we think, but by Nature and God. "identity" we notice, is not capitalized.

Yet Neither told—that I could learn—

Nevertheless, neither Nature nor God have told anyone Emily's true secret identity. At least not that she has "learned" of. Because, of course, they can't. It's beyond words, and therefore beyond learned knowledge. Her secret identity is secure!

My Secret as secure
As Herschel's private interest

Her identity is beyond knowing, because it's of Nature and God, which are themselves beyond knowing.

Dickinson is wise enough to not profess any knowledge of Nature and God. Not knowing is a kind of negative capability that actually allows beauty to exist. We saw this idea expressed beautifully in a poem a few back in the Franklin order,

“The definition of Beauty is
that definition is none.”

Herschel’s private interest is …what? Well, he’s famous for being the man that discovered Uranus, but he had many other private interests. He was not only a very accomplished astronomer, but also a talented composer. (See the fourth endnote) Herschel’s private interest, though, for the sake of this poem, is likely meant to be the planets and stars. The word "private" is intriguing. It most likely means that Herschel's interest is private because it can't be known, even to Herschel. But perhaps there are other possibilities (See the third endnote.)

Or Mercury's affair—

Mercury’s affairs, too, point toward the planetary. Mercury has the added resonance of the word mercurial, like quicksilver. God and Nature, and Emily Dickinson by extension, are mercurial like quicksilver too.

In these final lines Dickinson is saying that her identity is as unknowable and vast as the galaxy. 

One startling thing in this poem is, perhaps, the word "startles." Why is Dickinson startled by being so well known by Nature and God? For one, it's a mind-blowing thought. We can’t know, but are known. Our identity may not be in our own hands, but what does it matter if we are as large and unknowable as the cosmos? 

     -/)dam Wade l)eGraff

The Astronomer (Herschel) by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867

Notes:

1. In a strange and wonderful coincidence, I saw the above photo of Herschel at the Morgan Library last week. I went to the Morgan, on appointment, to see and hold in my hand (!!!) an Emily Dickinson poem, and not just any poem, but one she had given to Sue. When my friend Tyler Burba and I got to the library though something had gone wrong with the library's cooling system, so we had to wait. Meanwhile we explored the exhibits. One of them was a great show on Jane Austen and the other was photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron. There were several pictures of Herschel, who was a friend of hers. At that time I'd never heard of Herschel before. But I was immediately struck by the photos. So imagine my surprise when I started researching this poem. 

2. Keats and Whitman were both taken by Herschel's discovery too. 

Whitman writes in Song of Myself, “The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies." I've always loved this line, but didn't know until researching this Dickinson poem that Whitman was referring to Herschel here as both astronomer and composer! 

John Keats alludes to Herschel's discovery of Uranus in his 1816 sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer": 

"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken."

3. Was the "Uranus/ your anus" joke a thing back in the 1800s? It must’ve been, right? If so, is Dickinson being ribald by calling it Herschel's "private interest?" Probably not, but I wouldn't quite put it past her either.


4. Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel 1738 – 1822

Herschel published catalogues of astronomical objects.
Herschel published his discoveries as three catalogues:
Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars,
Catalogue of a Second Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars
And, finally, Catalogue of 500 New Nebulae.

While making his observations Herschel made note
of a new object in the constellation of Gemini.
He called the new planet the "Georgian star" after King George III.
In France, where reference to the British king was to be avoided if possible,
the planet was known as "Herschel.”
Eventually the planet was given the name of Uranus
and because of it, Herschel became famous.

Herschel also pioneered astronomical spectrophotometry
using prisms and temperature measuring equipment
to measure the wavelength distribution of stellar spectra
through which he discovered infrared radiation.  

He discovered Titania and Oberon (moons of Uranus)
and Enceladus and Mimas (moons of Saturn)
and the fact that Martian polar caps vary seasonally.

Herschel was sure that he had found ample evidence
of life on the Moon and compared it to the English countryside.
He did not refrain from theorizing that the other planets were populated,
Herschel went so far as to speculate that the interior of the Sun was populated.

But Herschel had other notable “private interests.”
His father was a court oboist and he followed suit,
mastering the oboe and then violin and harpsichord.
He composed numerous musical works,
including 24 symphonies and many concertos.

 In 1766 Herschel became organist of the Octagon Chapel
a fashionable chapel in a well-known spa in Bath.

Herschel's epitaph is: Coelorum perrupit claustra
(He broke through the barriers of the heavens)