Who Giants know, with lesser Men

Who Giants know, with lesser Men
Are incomplete, and shy—
For Greatness, that is ill at ease
In minor Company—

A Smaller, could not be perturbed—
The Summer Gnat displays—
Unconscious that his single Fleet
Do not comprise the skies—

     -Fr848, J796, Fascicle 38, 1864

Do you think this poem is more in praise of the gnat or the giant? 

I think you could make an argument for either here. The argument for the gnat would be something like this. The Giant is portrayed as “incomplete” and “ill at ease,” while the gnat is depicted as self-sufficient and untroubled. Even though its “single Fleet / Do not comprise the skies,” it is “unconscious” of this lack, which comes across as freedom. The gnat isn’t weighed down by its scale.

But Dickinson is keenly aware of scale. On one level that's what this poem is about. I believe she is saying here that it's better to be perturbed than to be small-minded.

If we stopped after “Giants know, with lesser Men / Are incomplete,” we might think, ah, this is arrogance. Greatness can’t bear to mix with the small. But in the next line we get a qualifier, “and shy— / For Greatness, that is ill at ease / In minor Company—”

That “shy” changes everything. Arrogance would trumpet itself. Shyness withdraws. That “shy” suggests that Greatness is aware of disparity.  The Giant’s shyness can be read as self-awareness and humility.

For Dickinson, being “ill at ease” is often a mark of depth. The Giant’s shyness and ill-at-ease-ness are what make it great. That re-frames the poem for me. True greatness isn’t loud self-assurance but the capacity to be unsettled. It's hard to understand why a Giant would feel insecure, but if you see insecurity as a sign of sensitivity, it starts to make sense. That is the insight of this poem.

The second stanza reifies this contrast. The Smaller (gnat) isn’t shy at all. But that’s not presented as noble confidence. It’s comic. The gnat doesn’t even realize its tiny fleet “Do not comprise the skies.” Its fearlessness comes from obliviousness, not virtue.

At first glance, the gnat seems admirably self-contained and unbothered, soaring along without concern. That could be read as a kind of independence. But Dickinson slyly undercuts the ideal of independence. The gnat’s composure comes not from wisdom but from unconsciousness. It doesn’t know how small it is. Its calm is ignorance.

Often smallness is something Dickinson champions. But here “Smaller” is pejorative. It refers to the “small-minded,” the one too oblivious to feel consequence. The gnat has a Napoleon complex. It’s “unperturbed,” but only because it doesn’t realize how tiny its fleet really is. Its confidence is shallow.


         -/)dam Wade l)eGraff


Notes: This poem reminded me right away of another Gnat/Giant pairing, Fr707:

Size circumscribes—it has no room
For petty furniture—
The Giant tolerates no Gnat
For Ease of Gianture—

Repudiates it, all the more—
Because intrinsic size
Ignores the possibility
Of Calumnies—or Flies.

These two poems illuminate each other.

In the poem under discussion, Fr848, the contrast between giant and gnat is about awareness. Greatness feels uneasy in small company, while smallness is unperturbed only because it doesn’t know better.

In the earlier poem, the dynamic sharpens.

“Size circumscribes—it has no room / For petty furniture—”

Here, largeness is shown as self-sufficient. True greatness doesn’t need adornments.

“The Giant tolerates no Gnat / For Ease of Gianture—”

Greatness doesn’t accommodate small-mindedness, not because it’s threatened but because it’s above being troubled by it.

“Repudiates it, all the more— / Because intrinsic size / Ignores the possibility / Of Calumnies—or Flies.”

Here largeness asserts itself more confidently. Its sheer “intrinsic size” makes slander (calumny) or other little annoyances (flies) irrelevant. Greatness doesn’t need to defend itself. 

In the later poem Greatness is ill at ease, which is a sign of its nobility. Smallness, by contrast is oblivious. In the earlier poem, Greatness is not uneasy. It’s serene and self-contained. Petty irritants simply don’t matter. Smallness here is cast as nuisance or slander, irrelevant next to intrinsic magnitude.

The earlier poem highlights greatness’s calm equanimity in the face of the petty. The later poem shows greatness’s humility and depth of feeling in the face of disparity.

When the two poems are read together there is a more complete picture. The great ones humbly transcend small-minded arrogance, but also, they don't get caught up in pettiness.