An Ancient fashioned Heart —
Its only lore — its Steadfastness —
In Change — unerudite —
It only moved as do the Suns —
For merit of Return —
Or Birds — confirmed perpetual
By Alternating Zone —
I only have it not Tonight
In its established place —
For technicality of Death —
Omitted in the Lease —
-F900, J973, 1865
'Twas awkward, but it fitted me —
An Ancient fashioned Heart —
I love "Ancient fashioned Heart." The heart is not just old-fashioned, it's Ancient fashioned. That word Ancient is so deep in time. It's like saying, "My love has been around forever, and therefore it's not going anywhere soon."
Why is this ancient fashioned heart awkward though? I think Dickinson is implying it's not the newest thing that counts, the new interesting person, it’s the tried and true, the old friend, the society of the soul.
This "awkward" business is funny. Dickinson's poetry is awkward not because it’s old-fashioned, but rather because it’s always new and difficult to get used to. Suffice to say, the most important thing is that the heart, and the poetry too, are ever true:
Its only lore — its Steadfastness —
This line is funny also, because there is SO much lore that has been created about Emily Dickinson. Scores of lore. Emilycore. And yet here it is as if she is saying that you can set all that aside. The only lore she has for us is her Steadfastness. It's remarkable too because here she still is, her Ancient heart still travelling into the future, steadfast as ever.
In Change — unerudite —
Yet another funny line. To be erudite is to have deep and arcane knowledge about subject. It’s to be in the know. By saying “In Change — unerudite —" it’s as if she is saying that change, the newest knowledge, is not what she knows about. Maybe one can read a hint of fear here. The poem takes a turn at the end, and so we know change is imminent for this Steadfast heart.
It only moved as do the Suns —
For merit of Return —
Are you kidding me with these lines? Dickinson aligns her Ancient heart with the Sun. We get the idea that Dickinson's Heart moves as the Sun does. And the reason it moves is merely for the merit of returning again. But wait? What? The sun doesn’t move, does it? Rather the earth moves around the sun. The line is a kind of trick of perspective. Rather it is the lover, the reader, that is always returning to the Steadfast Sun of Emily’s Ancient Heart.
Still, this idea of moving, for the sake of returning, whether it is the sun or the earth, is shrewd. Dickinson is declaring eternal steadfast love, but she’s also acknowledging the dance.
This line is funny also, because there is SO much lore that has been created about Emily Dickinson. Scores of lore. Emilycore. And yet here it is as if she is saying that you can set all that aside. The only lore she has for us is her Steadfastness. It's remarkable too because here she still is, her Ancient heart still travelling into the future, steadfast as ever.
In Change — unerudite —
Yet another funny line. To be erudite is to have deep and arcane knowledge about subject. It’s to be in the know. By saying “In Change — unerudite —" it’s as if she is saying that change, the newest knowledge, is not what she knows about. Maybe one can read a hint of fear here. The poem takes a turn at the end, and so we know change is imminent for this Steadfast heart.
It only moved as do the Suns —
For merit of Return —
Are you kidding me with these lines? Dickinson aligns her Ancient heart with the Sun. We get the idea that Dickinson's Heart moves as the Sun does. And the reason it moves is merely for the merit of returning again. But wait? What? The sun doesn’t move, does it? Rather the earth moves around the sun. The line is a kind of trick of perspective. Rather it is the lover, the reader, that is always returning to the Steadfast Sun of Emily’s Ancient Heart.
Still, this idea of moving, for the sake of returning, whether it is the sun or the earth, is shrewd. Dickinson is declaring eternal steadfast love, but she’s also acknowledging the dance.
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing"
Or Birds — confirmed perpetual
By Alternating Zone —
The birds perpetually fly south for the winter and north in the summer. Now Dickinson’s heart isn’t just the Sun, it’s the "confirmed perpetual" movement of life toward the Sun at all times, following it just as the birds do, from north to south in the winter and back again in the summer.
The change is all contained in a larger love, just like the seasons are overseen by the sun. It’s a wonderful way to look at both the heart and the sun. The two become one, the heart and the Sun.
I only have it not Tonight
In its established place —
Ugh, crushing lines. The way Dickinson wields a “not” is wicked. (See F891.) Dickinson’s heart is steadfast, so why isn’t in its established place? It must be because the lover’s heart wasn't as constant?
For technicality of Death —
Omitted in the Lease —
Either someone literally died, and Emily’s Steadfast heart can’t follow them into death, or for some reason the other person could not be steadfast in return. (Who knows what that reason might be, but it's worth mentioning, perhaps, that Dickinson's two greatest loves, Sue Gilbert and Charles Wadsworth, were married to other people.)
Here Dickinson switches her tone from the eternal language of nature, of birds and suns, to a legal language. Her father and brother were lawyers, so this kind of terminology in her poems often has, I've noticed, a bit of a bite. The poem begins so earnestly and grand and ends in a "technicality? " A broken lease due to the cause of death?
There’s the tone to me in those last lines of an icy finality. Either Emily’s begrudging the business-like transaction of death, or she's bitter because of a lover's neglect, as if to say, hey! you broke a contract with the Sun!
-/)dam Wade l)eGraff
Our Lady of Sorrows at the Church of the True Cross, Salamanca, Spain
900! Congratulations to Susan and Adam.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that Dickinson may be writing this poem from the vantage point of the already dead person. (As she has of course done in the past, most notably in “I died for beauty but was scarce” F448 and “Because I could not stop for Death” F479.)
I read those last two lines of legalese (“For technicality of Death — / Omitted in the Lease —”) as possibly referring to the poet’s own escape hatch from the commitment to a lover, due to her own death, not her flover’s. So, in this reading, the lease of a heart to her (a steadfast one) is hereby revoked — or at least the heart clause is omitted.
If so, then this poem has a lighter, almost jokey tone. Perhaps there is some relief at the end. Something like… so I was going to be true and steadfast to you, you know that, I’m that kind of person and all… but, ha, jokes on you, outta here!.
It occurs to me that she might be amusing herself by writing from the standpoint of someone she felt sparks with… who later died. In that case the joke would be on the poet (who is different from the narrator of the poem) after all!
On rereading, it’s difficult to read a jokey tone in this poem because of that devastating “Tonight.” The poignancy of that word — we can feel the darkness out the window, the quiet, the candle fluttering in its holder — feels like it carries emotion with it. Despite the technicality that supposedly omits the heart, the heart is very much in the spaces between the words of this Lease and this poem.
ReplyDelete(That was Tom C, replying to my own comment. I was Anonymous accidentally).
Delete
ReplyDeleteI think the reason the poet does not have her steadfast heart in its established place tonight is that the heart is dead. Something terrible must have happened and the heart was not able to bear it. The lease contract for the heart clearly did not anticipate such an eventuality; perhaps no one imagined it was even possible.
The word “Tonight” suggests to me that the situation, hopefully, is only temporary. She will have to attempt to revive the hart somehow if she can. That brings to mind F423.
The first Day's Night had come –
And grateful that a thing
So terrible – had been endured –
I told my Soul to sing –
She said her Strings were snapt –
Her Bow – to Atoms blown –
And so to mend her – gave me work
Until another Morn –
The phrase “Technicality of Death” reminds me of Hamlet’s line: “They do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i’ th’ world.” As if to say: “Death of the heart? Nothing serious, merely a technicality.”
Such a hopeful thought and apt reference to F423! “Tonight” implies, even necessitates, a morn. I love that.
DeleteAwesome poem!
ReplyDeleteFirst stanza: Call me stuck or call me true. Come what may, I do it my way.
Second stanza: A clarification. It's not that a steadfast heart never changes, it's that it changes by its own accord. It heeds its own rhythm, like the sun. If it couldn’t, it would die.
Third stanza: A twist. An old-fashioned heart stays its course. But tonight, the poet’s heart has skipped the track. That could be romantic, or just the opposite. Here, we’re skewing opposite. Like Tom C points out, the legalese gets us back to a heart governed. But with Death the rules don’t apply. I dunno. Even with the legalese, an untethered heart is romantic. And even through Death can dislodge a heart from its natural orbit, it’s a trivial thing, a technicality. The migratory birds have set up that a heart can't last long off its natural track. So we're holding our breath, catching a glimpse of somewhere we don't belong.
Awesome poem!