Midsummer, was it, when They died—

Midsummer, was it, when They died—
A full, and perfect time—
The Summer closed upon itself
In Consummated Bloom—

The Corn, her furthest kernel filled
Before the coming Flail—
When These—leaned unto Perfectness—
Through Haze of Burial—


    -Fr822, J962, 1864, Fascicle 40


This poem seems, at first, to be a meditation on two “summer” deaths. We know there were two because in another version of this poem the penultimate line reads, “When these two leaned in.” Summer here could mean actual summer, but it could also mean, in the language of poetry, the summer portion of their lives. In other words, this poem could be read as a meditation on dying young.

There is something so haunting when someone dies young, when someone is “cut down in their prime.” But this poem is not dreary. Rather “They” died in full bloom, before having to deal with the “coming Flail” of the reaper’s scythe, which is to say, not having to deal with old age.

This poem hit me personally because last night, before having read it, I had a dream in which I was watching YouTube and saw a video of my friend Mikhal, who drowned in his mid-twenties. In the dream he was riding on a carousel and laughing. I was moved upon waking by just how beautiful Mikhal was when he died. So this poem really struck me. Mikhal’s "summer closed in upon itself in consummated bloom.” The poem actually made me feel less sad about his early death. He may have missed out on a lot of good living, but he also avoided the “flail” of the thresher too. He “leaned into Perfectness.”

Still, I think it’s more plausible, knowing Dickinson’s predilections, that this poem is not about actual death at all. I think the “They,” the “Two,” in this poem refers to a couple (Emily and Sue) who have “died” into each other in “consummated Bloom.”

“They died” suggests to me the kind of ecstatic merging often described in romantic terms, especially in the 19th-century literature where overt eroticism was often coded. The idea that summer “closed upon itself” in bloom mirrors two lovers coming together.

The corn is fully ripe, just like the body when desire is at its furthest reach. The “coming Flail” represents either the end of innocence or, perhaps, a future separation. “Leaning into Perfectness” could be read as a romantic phrase. And “Haze of Burial” evokes a dissolving of boundaries, a fading of self into the other. It’s dreamlike, like the spiritual aftermath of intimacy.

I think this poem most likely celebrates a moment when two people died into each other in midsummer, a “full and perfect time,” and were transformed.

Either way, whether about actual death, or romance, the idea of summer closing in on itself in consummated bloom points to a kind of fulfillment that feels.. eternal.

     -/)dam Wade l)eGraff