Ambrose 1
David Ambrose
Dr. Kristin Comment
Whitman, Dickinson, & Frost (Grad)
November 4, 2013
Poem Explication: 437, Emily Dickinson
437
I never felt at Home – Below –
And in the Handsome Skies
I shall not feel at Home – I know –
I don’t like Paradise –
Because it’s Sunday – all the time –
And Recess – never comes –
And Eden’ll be so lonesome
Bright Wednesday Afternoons –
If God could make a visit –
Or ever took a Nap –
So not to see us – but they say
Himself – a Telescope
Perennial beholds us –
Myself would run away
From Him – and Holy Ghost – and All –
But there’s the “Judgement Day”!
Ambrose 2
Isolation on Earth as Well as in Heaven:
An Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s Poem 437
Emily Dickinson’s esoteric poetry has challenged modern readers in myriad ways:
unconventional punctuation (with liberal use of dashes) and irregular capitalization have left
some readers mystified. At times, it seems Dickinson wants to leave matters rather open-ended
for the reader, so he or she may interpret her verse on an individual basis. However, despite the
existence of a number of “variant” versions of many of her poems, Dickinson’s correspondence
with editors and other contemporaries suggests that she was very deliberate about her craft and
did not want anyone taking liberty with punctuation, capitalization, or any of the other hallmarks
of her style. In this unique style, Dickinson crafted many poems that questioned the significance
of organized religion; poem 437 (“I never felt at Home – Below –”) is one such poem. In this
poem, Dickinson confronts and challenges the authority of an omniscient and omnipresent
Almighty while conveying her own general malaise about earthly existence. Ironically – or
perhaps not so ironically, given her disdain for her Calvinist contemporaries – Dickinson also
predicts in this poem that she will be just as happy – or unhappy – in the afterlife, for Eden will
be “so lonesome” (7) for her. In the end, Dickinson acquiesces to the idea that a Judgment Day
is inevitable – she merely is not all that worried and does not care all that much.
In the poem’s opening stanza, Dickinson conveys a clear tone of unrest, a feeling that she
is not or will never be comfortable. Not only does Dickinson suggest that she is out of place in
this world, she suggests that she knows she will be out of place in the next: “I never felt at Home
– Below – / And in the Handsome skies / I shall not feel at Home” (1-3). Dickinson’s Spartan
characterization of earth – the mere “Below” (2) – connotes negative feelings toward earthly
existence. That a poet capable of such beautiful and vivid descriptions would choose to
Ambrose 3
represent earth by this single word certainly reflects her cynical view of this world. Many of
Dickinson’s contemporaries, including her own family, would find solace in the notion of the
afterlife, but not Dickinson: she cynically admits “I dont [sic] like Paradise” (4). This line lends
a depressing finality to the stanza, as it expresses the notion that Dickinson will be unhappy and
uncomfortable for all of eternity. The poem’s opening stanza places the speaker squarely
between the physical and the metaphysical world – and knows she will not be at home in either.
In the poem’s second stanza, Dickinson continues to develop her feelings of malaise
towards earthly existence, the afterlife, and everything in between. Dickinson crafts an ironic
juxtaposition in the stanza’s opening two lines. Dickinson opens with the observation that “it’s
Sunday – all the time –” (5), presenting the reader with a seemingly idyllic scenario of constant
days of rest. A life of constant Sabbaths might be a veritable utopia for most, but certainly not
Dickinson. Ironically, in this life of constant Sundays, for Dickinson, “Recess – never comes”
(6). Though most of her Calvinist contemporaries would enjoy the respite provided by a Sunday,
Dickinson certainly would not. Just as Dickinson had difficulty finding companionship on earth,
she would presumably have trouble with this in paradise as well: she admits that “Eden’ll be so
lonesome” (7). And though the stanza’s closing lines seem to convey an idyllic and positive
image – “Bright Wednesday Afternoons” (8), even this is a negative: for Dickinson, bright
sunlight is actually associated with the masculine, with religion, with many motifs that hold a
negative connotation for her. According to Wendy Barker’s critical essay, “Emily Dickinson
and Poetic Strategy,” Dickinson was known for “metaphorically associating the lack of sun
with…peace and privacy” (79). These bright Wednesday afternoons, therefore, despite being as
far from Sunday mornings as they can be on the weekly calendar, still hold virtually the same
negative connotation for Dickinson.
Ambrose 4
In the third stanza, Dickinson satirizes the role of organized religion by trivializing the
omnipotence of God. Many of Dickinson’s Calvinist contemporaries would unquestioningly
accept the ubiquity of God in their lives and talk about God with extraordinary reverence;
Dickinson, by contrast, talks about God in remarkably casual terms: she speculates about what
life would be like if “God could make a visit – / Or ever took a Nap” (9-10). By speaking in
such everyday terms about the Almighty, Dickinson would already be angering her religious
contemporaries; the mere thought of God taking a nap would certainly be perceived as sacrilege
by Calvinists. In this stanza, Dickinson suggests that God could actually opt “not to see us” (11);
again, this notion would anger and offend the religious zealots of Dickinson’s time period. At
the close of the stanzas, Dickinson likens God to a “Telescope” (12). Though this line likens
God to an everyday object with inherent earthly limits, the metaphor does suggest God’s ability
to watch over the world from a great distance. While questioning the relevance of God
throughout the poem, Dickinson does at times acknowledge His vast observational powers, and
this line, which closes this stanza, is one of those times.
In the poem’s fourth and final stanza, Dickinson becomes even more overt and assertive
in her refutation of God and organized religion. The stanza’s opening line finishes a phrase
started in the final line of the previous stanza: Dickinson characterizes God as a “Telescope /
Perennial” (12-13), perhaps the one place in the poem in which she takes a somewhat positive
attitude toward God. However, Dickinson swiftly rejects this positive tone – and rejects God
entirely – as she suggests, quite matter-of-factly, that she “would run away / from Him – and
Holy Ghost – and all” (14-15). Just after acknowledging God’s constant presence and power,
she suggests that she would attempt escape from His rule (though the implication is clear that
this would be futile). It is not, then, paramount that she succeed with this flight from God, but
Ambrose 5
only that she attempt it; for Dickinson’s Calvinist contemporaries, this would certainly be
sufficient sacrilegious defiance. The structure of line 15 (“From Him – and Holy Ghost – and all
–”) suggests that Dickinson is not only looking to defy the Holy Trinity, but to also defy the
establishment of the Catholic church; perhaps “the all” at the end of the line suggests the
religious institution and all that comes along with it.
Dickinson’s defiant tone shifts to tongue-in-cheek satire in the poem’s final line. As
Dickinson exclaims “But there’s the ‘Judgment Day’!” (16), she at once mocks the notion of
final judgment and acknowledges its inevitability. In this line, it is as if Dickinson is figuratively
throwing her arms in the air, as if to say, “Well, Judgment Day is coming! It’s something I don’t
take too seriously, but I know it’s on its way and there’s nothing I can do!” In the end of the
poem, Dickinson fully acknowledges the presence of God and the inevitability of His final
judgment, but she at the same time addresses it in an almost light-hearted manner; the quotations
surrounding “Judgment Day” and the exclamation point at the end of the sentence serve to
support this reading of the text. Ultimately, Dickinson moves in this poem from feelings of
unrest and malaise to a feeling of defiant apathy. This clear oxymoron conveys Dickinson’s
conflicted feelings toward religion: she opposes it as much as she can, but in the end, she is
forced to acknowledge its presence and power, so she moves toward not caring all that much.
In the aforementioned essay “Emily Dickinson and Poetic Strategy,” Barker presents a
significant amount of historical evidence to support the assertion that this poem is a satire of
religion. Barker fleshes out Dickinson's opposition to religion by performing a close reading of
some of Dickinson’s poem in conjunction with an analysis of primary source documents that
shed light on her life and relationships. In her letters to her brother Austin, Dickinson repeatedly
expressed the disdain for church that is present in this poem. In a July 6, 1851 letter, Dickinson
Ambrose 6
describes herself as “very hot, and faded” after returning home from a church service, and
associates “the language of the Calvinist church, its doctrine and its rituals, with the enervating
effects of July's heat" (Barker 78-9). In a later letter, from October 1851, Dickinson explains
how she plays “hooky” from church and metaphorically associates “the lack of sun with...peace
and privacy” (Barker 79). This evidence suggests that draining nature of the church for
Dickinson, and demonstrates that she did attempt to “run away” from God (by playing hooky
from church) just as she suggests she will do in line 14 of the poem). Additionally, in these
letters, Dickinson places a positive connotation upon lack of sun – an ironic reversal of what we
generally associate with a lack of sunlight. This supports a reading of lines like “Handsome
skies” (2) and “Bright Wednesday Afternoons” (8) that runs counter to the conventional wisdom
of literary analysis, which would suggest light is equated with the positive. The tone and the
metaphorical language of these letters to her brother are reflected in Dickinson's poems, such as
437. This poem generally seems to be a poetic expression of the emotions she expressed in
letters to her brother in 1851.
One of the ways that Dickinson satirizes the church in this and in many of her poems is
her capitalization of words that do not have a religious connotation. Generally, words that are
associated with the divine are capitalized as a sign of reverence. In this poem, however,
Dickinson capitalizes words that are not associated with God, thereby mocking and trivializing
the sort of reverence that was common in her time. As she capitalizes words like “Recess” (6),
“Afternoons” (8), and “Nap” (10), Dickinson’s implicit message is that traditional reverence is
not something to be taken too seriously.
In her unique style, Dickinson uses poem 437 (“I never felt at Home – Below –”) to
question the significance of organized religion. In this poem, Dickinson confronts and
Ambrose 7
challenges the authority of an omniscient and omnipresent Almighty while conveying her own
general malaise about earthly existence. Despite her consistent scorn for the church, however,
Dickinson ultimately admits that the "Judgment Day" will inevitably come for all, including her
– but perhaps she just does not care that much.
Ambrose 8
Works Cited
Barker, Wendy. “Emily Dickinson and Poetic Strategy.” The Cambridge Companion to Emily
Dickinson. Ed. Wendy Martin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 77-90.
Print.
Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. R. W. Franklin. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1999. 202. Print.