Emily Dickinson Reading Circle December 2017

Emily Dickinson Reading Circle December 2017

Facilitated by Margaret Freeman

An Afternoon with Emily Seelbinder

Margaret. Emily, I don't think, needs any introduction, does she? The article that I sent out, which I hope some of you at least were able to read, was "The Bible." It came out of this book, "Emily Dickinson in Context, by Eliza Richards." So, Emily, I'll turn it over to you.

Emily. And we were allowed very limited space for the chapter in that book; it's meant to be a hand book. Some of you have had a chance to read the article, which tells you what the poem that is at the center of that piece is "Of Tribulations these are they." A little back story - that is the poem that sent me down the Emily Dickinson rabbit hole. I was doing a study during January term, and my professor told me to start journaling about the poem. I had a big ledger book, and I was writing about the poem, and I was trying to read them from end to end; I was reading through the Johnson variorum, and I got to this poem - Johnson number 325 - and saw her note, "I spelled ankle wrong," and I started to try to figure out why. It took me thirty years to get to the solution that I hope is something of a solution in the chapter. It got me into how Dickinson is reading scripture, interpreting scripture; I wrote a paper on the gospel according to Emily Dickinson and continued to circle back to this on a regular basis. So, I thought what we'd do is take a look at that poem, take a look at the manuscript that leads up to this odd interpretation of the ending of that poem, and then work our way into some of the ones that have to do with scripture - Dickinson's treatment of Bible texts, and maybe wander into her own Bible and see if it sheds light on how she's interpreting scripture. I sometimes call it "editing God."

            So, let's begin with "Of Tribulations these are they," Johnson 325, Franklin 328, and then the text I'm most interested in is "b." I don't see anyone holding the variorum, except Margaret."

Margaret. Yes, it's the b copy. It's in the Boston Public Library. And, the facsimile is from the one that Emily's going to read.

Emily reads.

Of Tribulation - these are They,

Denoted by the White.

The Spangled Gowns, a lesser Rank

Of Victors, designate -

All these- did conquer -

But the Ones who overcame most times -

Wear nothing commoner than Snow-

No Ornament - but Palms-

"Surrender" - is a sort unknown

On this superior soil-

"Defeat" - an outgrown Anguish,

Remembered, as the Mile

Our panting Ancle barely passed,

When Night devoured the Road-

But we- stood - whispering in the House-

And all we said - was Saved!

[ To hear this poem read aloud, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-i8oOQBNJw ]

I'm just going to put the poem out there and see what bubbles up.

Margaret. I find it interesting that she runs over two stanzas the way you read it Emily, and the third stanza break (sic) after the first line. So, it sort of stands by itself for a while. - is a sort unknown

Emily. On this superior soil -

Alice. Surrender is equal to defeat, is another thing there.

Emily. And, in the manuscript version that she sent to Higginson, those two words are in quotation marks, so there's a slight difference there. Both the Franklin and Johnson variorums call our attention to the Biblical allusion here, and it's a paraphrase, I think Johnson calls it of Revelation 7. Now, we know that Dickinson was fond of Revelation. This particular chapter in her own Bible is marked by two dog-eared pages facing each other. It's really the only place that that occurs in her Bible. There's a picture of those pages in Polly Longsworth's illustrated history. You can also go to Emily Dickinson's Bible on the Harvard site. It's been digitized, and you can turn it page by page and search for anything you're looking for. If it's been a while since you've read Revelation, what's happening in chapter seven is that the sixth seal has been opened, and the seventh seal will be opened in chapter eight, and that's the last of the seals. What happens in chapter seven is a procession through the streets of heaven, and the guide to John describes all of the people who are parading through include all of the tribes of Israel, and then there's a group of people who are dressed in very plain white robes:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, Who are these who are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So, they're the Martyrs. And in at least one interpretation - Rebecca Patterson - she calls this a martyrdom poem inspired by various verses in Revelation, and, according to Dickinson's biblical source, Patterson says, those worthy to wear the white robes have not defiled themselves with sexual intercourse. That's another way of reading the white robes; for they are virgins. That's Revelation 14:4. So the white robes, washed in the blood of the lamb. [ Here, Emily Seelbinder breaks into a hymn; others join in] "There is power, power, wonder-working power/ In the blood - in the blood - of the Lamb - of the Lamb." [laughter] So, that is the Biblical context for this poem, that moment in Revelation when the parade of martyrs begins.

Margaret. This really is a gloss on that whole section that you just read out, isn't it? I mean, it shows how much she was actively participating [inaudible].

Emily. Oh, and this is an echo of that "These are they."

These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Maybe that's where the notion that priests should be celibate comes from. ... What do you think the point of view is here? Who's speaking? Presumably, John and his guide are having a dialogue which John is reporting in Revelation.

Margaret. Well, it's interesting, because the first two stanzas are clearly referring to the Revelation procession that you describe. Then she comments on it in the third stanza with the surrender and the defeat, and when she introduces Our panting Ancle, she introduces us into that procession.

Wendy. And we are Saved.

Margaret. But we- stood - whispering in the House. So, what were we doing? We're the procession. Who's we?

Emily. Exactly. You begin with the procession and then identifying those who are doing the processing, and they're distinctive because of their white robes which bear no ornament; and they carry palms. So in one of those wonderful reversals that happen in death, it's the plainest, the simplest, who garner those honors, so there's no decoration whatsoever. And then that same reversal is echoed in the third stanza. "Surrender" - is a sort unknown. "Defeat" - I love this - an outgrown Anguish. And, Remembered, as the Mile/ Our panting Ancle barely passed.

Margaret. And there are two versions of this poem. A variant for passed is "gained." Remembered, as the Mile/ Our panting Ancle barely gained. And so there we're suddenly in the house, right? - in the procession.

Wendy. What's the house?

Margaret. The heavenly house - the "many mansions."

Libby. So, this superior soil, is that the afterlife?

Emily. Uh-huh. And, Dickinson plays with this notion of surrender and defeat in other poems. You have "Success is counted sweetest/ By those who n'er succeed," and some of her Civil War poems in which this notion of surrender and defeat, and then the way in which the defeated are victors. You know, "Death, where is thy sting?" And so forth and so on; that the victory is in having been saved, having been faithful. These are the martyrs; they surrender the body in martyrdom. That is no longer required of them, and what might have been perceived as defeat on Earth is now an outgrown Anguish in heaven. I really love this image of death arriving, if you will, an outgrown Anguish Remembered, as the Mile, and the notion of night devouring the road. And, the image that really rattled me for quite some time was the panting Ancle. What made the ancle panting? It's not, perhaps, the most unusual image in Dickinson; she does this sort of compression all the time, but, how can an ankle pant? Mine are a little slower from eating far too much rich food over the weekend ..

Lois. Well, it's not the ankle that's panting.

Alice. One of the definitions is not the breath kind of panting, but like a tremor.

Margaret. Or, it could simply be the exhaustion after a long, long, trek - the journey which is life.

Lois. So, is she attempting to improve on John's account of this scenario in Heaven, or is she taking his part in attempting to speak for him? Why would she feel the need to improve on that ...

Margaret. Why improve? Why not say personalize?

Alice. She's casting a net.

Lois. That's what I'm wondering. If she's doing that she's essentially saying, "John, you need some help here. [laughs]  This is about "You know, I know what it takes to get those white robes, 'cause I have one, and I know about the struggle. And, perhaps she's making note and an indirect jab at John for making it sound like such a lofty, unapproachable, or impossible ambition, because it sets everybody apart. I don't know, it just strikes me, particularly in the third and fourth stanza. Like you said, until then, she's kind of just paraphrasing, but after that she takes off on her own. She must have felt like it hadn't been said in that passage in the Bible, and I'm wondering what it is exactly.

Emily. This is what sent me to the manuscript. In the variorum there are two fair copies. She uses the word "ancle" three times in her poetry, and all three times it's spelled with a "c" by the way. there's a note to the one she sent to Higginson, at the bottom of which she wrote "I spelt ankle wrong." And that was the thing that grabbed me. I can hear her to this day saying [in a child-like sing-song way] "I spelt ankle wrooong."

Margaret. OK, but before you go into that Emily, can I just speak to what Lois said? I wonder, Lois, whether you're having that reaction because what hangs me up, in that last stanza, is the "but." We have the defeat and the panting ancle and everything else, then BUT. Then ALL we said was SAVED!

Alice. Well, she's putting us all in that group, as we read the poem.

Lois. Well, she's most emphatically making a group statement, because she doesn't put a comma after "but," it's But we.  .....

Emily. My working theory was that she was making another Biblical reference, as nineteenth-century writers often did, and they sometimes make them very obliquely. Higginson was a minister himself; he knew scripture well, and my sense was that she was going after something connecting it to some other scripture. The word "ancle" appears, I think, three or four times in King James. There's one oblique reference to ancles as bracelets in Isaiah, where he refers to tinkling ornaments worn by women; Ezekiel has the water rise to his ankles, in the river underneath the temple, and then there's the passage in Acts. But, none of them seems to speak to what she might be doing until - I found that it was continued to be spelled with a c long into the nineteenth century, when printers then began changing out their type and correcting it to "ankle."

[A discussion of Emily Dickinson's position on religious belief ensues]

Margaret. Now this one [ Johnson 1545/Franklin 1577 ] she really liked, because There are three versions of this poem.

Emily. For me the most interesting one is the one she sent to Ned. He was ill and couldn't make it to church, so she titles this one "The Bible diagnosed by a boy."

Margaret. She also wrote, "Sanctuary privileges for Ned, as he is unable to attend."

Emily. And so this is a kind of sermon if you will. He gets his dose of church staying at home.

The Bible is an antique Volume -

Written by faded men

At the suggestion of Holy Spectres -

Subjects -Bethlehem -

Eden -the ancient Homestead -

Satan -the Brigadier -

Judas -the Great Defaulter -

David -the Troubador -

Sin -a distinguished Precipice

Others must resist -

Boys that "believe" are very lonesome -

Other Boys are "lost" -

Had but the Tale a warbling Teller -

All the Boys would come -

Orpheus' Sermon captivated -

It did not condemn -

[ To hear this poem read aloud, go to https://youtu.be/FGk_2BuDzSw ]

Greg. Someone pointed out once that these characters - the Brigadeer, the Great Defaulter, the Troubadour - the Precipice that one might be in danger of falling over - they're all elements of Gothic novels. [general agreement]

Emily. Yes, ancient Homestead ... I just want to go into this briefly before I [ inaudible ] the sense that the Bible would be a really great read if it had these Gothic characters that they would like to read in boy's books. So, if you go from there to some of the poems where she's taking biblical characters and representing them ... let's look at Abraham to Kill him; that's Johnson 1317 and Franklin 1332. I presume everyone knows the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac.

Margaret reads:

Abraham to kill him

Was distinctly told—

Isaac was an Urchin—

Abraham was old—

Not a hesitation—

Abraham complied—

Flattered by Obeisance

Tyranny demurred—

Isaac—to his children

Lived to tell the tale—

Moral—with a mastiff

Manners may prevail.

[ To hear this poem read aloud, go to https://youtu.be/Unzc9FDq1to ]

Emily. This one, to me, is framed as a kind of children's rhyme, giving them the gist of the story and the moral of the story, and the moral is hilarious - comparing God to a mastiff. The worst a mastiff can do is drool on you - they're very gentle dogs, but Isaac is an Urchin, Abraham is old - here's the children's lesson, the children's sermon if you will. And, there are several poems where she's riffing off of the biblical text and offering either a condensation, or some sort of oblique criticism, or some sort of new angle for that. She re-tells Jacob's wrestling with the angel in A little east of Jordan, and then in a late letter she says to Higginson, "I will not let the go until I bless thee," and Jacob says "I will not let the go until you bless me." She also channels David in I took my Power in my Hand.

Margaret. And we also have the William Tell story, and It always felt to me—a wrong/ To that Old Moses—done—

Emily. And that's where I'm headed.

Margaret. Oh, sorry. [laughter]

Emily. The Moses poem is a fascinating discussion of what happened to Moses at the end of his life. That's Johnson 597, Franklin 521.

It always felt to me—a wrong

To that Old Moses—done—

To let him see—the Canaan—

Without the entering—

And tho' in soberer moments—

No Moses there can be

I'm satisfied—the Romance

In point of injury—

Surpasses sharper stated—

Of Stephen—or of Paul—

For these—were only put to death—

While God's adroiter will

On Moses—seemed to fasten

With tantalizing Play

As Boy—should deal with lesser Boy—

To prove ability.

The fault—was doubtless Israel's—

Myself—had banned the Tribes—

And ushered Grand Old Moses

In Pentateuchal Robes

Upon the Broad Possession

'Twas little—But titled Him—to see— [ Emily reads a variant here. ]

Old Man on Nebo! Late as this—

My justice bleeds—for Thee!

We had a discussion of this on Friday afternoon, on Dickinson and race and the person leading the discussion was arguing that this is a Civil War poem and that Moses is leading the slaves out of Egypt and that Dickinson was siding with the leader in stead of the slaves, and I said "But Moses  himself  was  a  slave!" [laughter] And in defense of Moses, the Israelites behaved very badly! For forty Years! And he marched them through to the promised land. [crosstalk]

Margaret. Imposing their ideology on the poetry.

Emily. Its's a poem that does have to do with slavery and liberation of the slaves, but at the heart of it, it was done to Moses.

Wendy. And tho' in soberer moments/ No Moses there can be Is that what is sounds like? Moses isn't real, it's all a story.

Alice. Yes, it's all a story.

Wendy. Really heretical. This is way out there - comparing God to a boy playing dirty.

Emily. She's criticizing God. One of the things that I mention in the chapter on Dickinson's Bible is that in Dickinson's lifetime Biblical criticism made a dramatic shift, in large part because of the German Biblical scholars who were so heretical as to say these were myths - these were perhaps historical stories, and then treating the text as an artifact of a people and a report of the time, and this was called "higher criticism."  This trickled down into discussions in Amherst and many other places, and I argue in the chapter that The Bible is an Antique Volume is a commentary on higher criticism and what that brings. They invite readers to read the text in an historical context. This was considered really quite radical in the time, but by the end of the nineteenth century that form of biblical interpretation had really taken over. It was being taught in the seminaries, and from looking at some of the books that Dickinson might have consulted I've been able to determine that this would have been something that she would have been familiar with. ... Well, there's another poem where Moses gets mentioned in a similiar way, and it's So I pull my Stockings off. Johnson 1201, Franklin 1271.

Margaret. It's interesting that this poem starts with "So."

Emily. And it includes [ sings ] "Wade in the water."

So I pull my Stockings off

Wading in the Water

For the Disobedience' Sake

Boy that lived for "or'ter"

Went to Heaven perhaps at Death

And perhaps he didn't

Moses wasn't fairly used —

Ananias wasn't —

Wendy. Who is Ananias?

Emily. Ananias appears twice in Acts, and it's two characters. There are two men named Ananais within inches of each other in your Bible. One of them is a man who is sent to heal Saul. Actually there are three Ananais'. One is a man, with his wife Sophira, sells his land and is going to give the funds to Peter and John, and he holds a little back. When Peter says, Is this all of it? and the man says yes, and Peter says, Are you sure? I'm paraphrasing - and the man falls to the ground dead. Later his wife comes, and she's also asked the same questions, holds something back, and she is struck dead. Later, another Ananias, who is sent to heal Saul's blindness, which he does, and this is faithfully reported. Then later, there's a priest named Ananias who causes people to strike Paul in the face and to abuse him, and betrays him to the authorities to be put to death. Which Ananias does she have in mind?

Wendy. Somebody who wasn't fairly used.

Emily. Right, but are any of them fairly used? Was it the one that was struck dead? [general agreement].