Fraud cannot presume—
Faith is Constancy's Result—
And assumes—from Home—
Cannot perish, though it fail
Every second time—
But defaced Vicariously—
For Some Other Shame—
-Fr835, J969, Fascicle 40, 1864
This one starts off in a variation of the advice Polonius gives to Laertes in Shakepeare’s Hamlet:
“This above all- to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Dickinson's version:
He who in Himself believes—
Fraud cannot presume—
Fraud cannot presume—
There's a difference though, it seems to me, between being true to yourself and believing in yourself. The first means looking at yourself honestly, doing your best not to fool yourself. But to believe in yourself takes fortitude and will-power. You have to know what it is you are believing in. You have to know who you are and what you are about. Once you do, and will, fraud cannot “presume” anything different.
We get a sense of the difference in the turn-around presented to us in the following line,
Faith is Constancy's Result—
Normally we would say that constancy is faith’s result. You have faith and therefore you are constant. But here we start with constancy. Faith is something earned through action. That’s a great twist. It’s not really faith though if it is the result of action, is it? It’s more like “knowing.”
In the sense of “knowing,” we are led to a very powerful word in Dickinson’s lexicon: Home.
Faith is Constancy's Result—
And assumes—from Home—
Dickinson has written elsewhere of the “infinite power of Home.” And though by Home Dickinson means something fundamental, we can’t help but remember that Dickinson died in the home she was born in. She was, indeed, very constant to her family, as well as to her friends.
The idea of assuming “from Home” is powerful too. Assume is an odd word, a contranym almost. It can mean to believe something without having all the facts (similar to faith,) but it can also mean to support, as in “assume a debt” and, even, to become, as in assuming a body.
I think of the beginning of Whitman’s Song of Myself. “What I assume you shall assume/ for every atom belonging to me as well belongs to you.” Whitman is talking about belief, but also about the idea of assuming a form. The two opposing meanings are mystically tied together. We end up becoming (assuming) what we believe (assume).
So, our faith is assumed from a constancy to our Home, and all that Home entails.
Cannot perish, though it fail
Every second time—
If you believe in yourself, and your home, you will eventually succeed, though you fail often. “Every second time” is funny. I like the odds though. Half the time you will fail. But half the time you will succeed too.
But defaced Vicariously—
For Some Other Shame—
“Defaced vicariously” is a pointed phrase. Vicarious, according to the Dickinson lexicon means, “Proxy; representative; substituting; acting on behalf of another; carried out in another's stead.” So, essentially, you are someone else, not your true self, when you are brought to “Shame.” You are “defaced.” Your face is taken away and replaced with someone else’s, someone who is not the true you “whom in himself believes.”
The poem ends in “Shame.” But the message seems to be to try, try again. It’s all about that constancy.
I don’t know what to make of it, but I find the slant-rhyme in this pleasing and curious. Presume/ Home/ Time/ Shame, with internal rhyme of Assume and Some. All of it seems to be honing into the sound of Home.
-/)dam Wade l)eGraff
That's Emily's Home. Her window is on the far right.
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ReplyDelete"Vicarious" refers to the substitutionary atonement through the death of Jesus Christ. In my point of view, this poem is believed to emphasize faith in one's own efforts, rather than false faith.
ReplyDeleteHe who in Himself believes—
Fraud (False faith) cannot presume—
Faith is Constancy(endless effort)'s Result—
And assumes—from Home(infinite power)—
Cannot perish, though it fail
Every second time—
But defaced Vicariously—
For Some Other Shame(false faith)—
Moon
Thank you Larry and Moon for your takes. I can see them both as possibilities. Who is it that defaces the self? Is it a false lover? A false God? Or a false self? All intriguing possibilities. The facets shine with the lights upon which they reflect.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Larry, according to Emily's niece Matty, who heard it from Lavinia and Austin and Sue, it was Emily who renounced Wadsworth, not the other way around. Seeing that he was married, I believe it. She was young and passionate, but also, it would seem, highly principled.
Slant! See what you will!
ReplyDeleteWhat did Emily know about statistics and probability theory? How much of it did she inuit? In the realm of numerical modeling, the only way we simplify a complex system is by making assumptions about it. You could say that modeling is assuming, and then making sense given your assumptions. If the assumption is valid, you're cooking. If not, you're lost. Failing every second time sounds like flipping a coin. Like the probability of observing event "tails" is 1/2. If faith predicts tails, faith is the coin's fool
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” (Canto III, Inferno, Dante Alighieri, 1314 AD)
ReplyDeleteBecause of ED’s word choices or quirks, this poem was one tough cookie for me (or my take may simply be off-track). For example, I think ED intended Stanza 2 to be two two-line sentences, which I indicated with two periods. Line 3 Stanza 1, “Faith is Constancy's Result”, especially puzzles me, as it did Adam. I think ED may have meant “Constancy is Faith’s Result”. However, I used her published Line 3 in my interpretation.
ED’s alternative words are in (parentheses), and my inserts are in [brackets]. The abbreviation EDL means I substituted an ED Lexicon definition for ED’s published word.
An interpretation:
He who in Himself believes—
Fraud cannot [usurp, EDL]
Faith is Constancy's Result—
And [accepts as fact, EDL] [what I learned at] Home—
[Faith] Cannot perish, though it fail
Every second time.
(If) defaced [by proxy, EDL] —
[Faith can perish] For Some Other Shame[ful reason].
Adam, that’s the finest photo of “Homestead” I’ve seen. ED's bedroom/office was on the second floor, southwest corner, “far right”, as you said, and it had two windows. Her west window faced the sunsets she loved, and her south window faced the Holyoke Mountains, which she called her “Strong Madonnas” in ‘Sweet Mountains–Ye tell me no lie–’ (Fr745).
ReplyDeleteThe Holyoke Mountains are a chain of 800-1000 foot peaks five miles south of Amherst. They only stretch seven miles from east to west, but because they are so close to ED's south window, to her they seemed taller than they are. When the Sun sets, its last red rays shine on the rocky faces of these peaks, and they became, in ED's vivid imagination, her "Strong Madonnas".