Meghan Allen
ENLIT 149
11/03/15
There are many who claim that a home can tell much about the life of the one
who lives in it. This theory is often proved true, as an organized house reflects an
organized mind. Were someone to dwell in a forest, a person might surmise that he or
she enjoys nature. If someone built their house in a city, there may be reasonable cause
to believe that person enjoys socializing. I believe looking at someone’s personal space
provides a more accurate characterization than examining one’s speech or writing. Both
writing and speech can be haphazard, rash, slow, stiff, or rehearsed. Speech can be
misleading, especially in souls that lend themselves to solitude. Showing another one’s
personal space can be akin to baring one’s soul. This theory may be applied to a poet
or an artist as well with moderate success. Of course, it cannot be simple when applied
to Emily Dickinson.
For example, it would be simple to claim that Emily Dickinson dwelt on life and
death. Her fascination with nature was plain in her lighter works. Her many visions of
death and descriptions of dying litter her poetry. Although she provides many different
views of the two concepts, these ruminations may be the only clear themes in her work.
This small glance is like looking through a dirty window into a home: it gives a certain
view of the person but that view is warped and incomplete. To leave her poetry at this
surface is to lack understanding. We must look at her literary home, the place she dwelt
in and not what she dwelt on, to understand the works she produced.
I will hesitantly claim that Dickinson dwelt both in possibility and in limbo.
Dwelling in limbo, purgatory, or between life and death is more often a feat
reserved for those on an operating table than for the young and healthy. Obsession with
death and morbidity is highly unhealthy to social relationships and mental health.
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Similarly, one blindly acknowledging only life can be called naive and foolish. To
constantly be in a state exactly between these two extremes, on the outside of
conventional life, is not only impractical or impossible, it is lonely. But I believe Emily
Dickinson dwelt in this purgatory.
Dickinson is well-known for her melancholic nature and morbid works but she
was truly a soul in communion with nature. A major theme in her poetry is the
commanding presence of nature coupled with the beauty of its smallest creatures (741).
One of her most popular poems dealing with nature, beginning with the line “Nature- the
Gentlest Mother is-” personifies the earth as a watchful and caring spirit, rampant with
forgiveness and infinite affection. This adoration for life, present in many other works,
shows her determination to witness life in its simplest, purest form.
Yet, Dickinson was all too aware of death and how often it visits life and nature.
Although many view death as harsh or cruel, Dickinson almost always presents a calm,
gentle end (479, 640, 1066). The beauty she gives to something that is universally
feared is unnatural and unmatched. Most who adore life abhore death and vice versa,
those who wish for death find no joy in life. Dickinson mainly wrote of her joy in birds or
nature, not in her family or friends or any lovers. She wrote poetry alluding to what may
be her death, or how she envisions death to be. This balance Emily Dickinson dwelt in
is enough to bring up the question “Did she ever truly feel alive?” No one may ever
know, but we may dwell on the possibility that her home between life and death
prevented her from being a true member of either side.
To say that Dickinson dwells in Possibility comes directly from one of her poems,
if the reader believes Dickinson herself to be the narrator (466). Should a reader replace
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the word “Possibility” in the first line with the word “Poetry,” a much clearer conclusion
might be drawn. I believe she dwells in the possibilities her poetry can create for the
reader. In the next line of her poem she states that possibility, or poetry, is “a fairer
house than Prose-”. By saying this, she may believe poetry provides more beautiful
possibilities for description than normal prose. She dwelt on the ambiguous nature of
poetry and viewed it as a way to explore abstract concepts without them being
narrowed or cemented with literal language. Dickinson believes poetry offers more
numerous ways to be understood and to understand. However, she also may have used
the word ‘fairer’ in another context, a context having to do with justice. Possibility, or
Poetry, may be doing more justice to the subject of her work. Writing a subject into
poetry may be elevating the object to a greater height by removing it from the common
crimes of prose.
Dickinson goes on to describe the place she dwells, Possibility, as being “More
numerous of Windows- Superior- for Doors” (ln.2-3). A common association with
windows and doors is that they may be opened. She describes the roof being made of
sky. This is an airy, free, and light place to any reader and it seems that the possibilities
in Possibility (Poetry) are endless. Dickinson describes possibility as being open, but
then continues on her next lines in the opposite fashion. Possibility becomes
“Impregnable of eye-”. By this continuous contrast in her work, Dickinson describes the
problems one may face when encountering poetry. While it may free some people,
topics, or beliefs, it can close the doors to others.
Few can dwell in poetry, purgatory, or possibility all their life, whether it be
because of humanity’s fear of death, a refusal to fully appreciate life in all forms, or
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because of the uncontainable and changing nature of poetry. It is nearly impossible, but
few would try to constantly dwell in all these places at once. Perhaps this is another
reason why Emily Dickinson lacked many earthly connections; she dwelt in a place few
could follow her to.
Meghan Allen
ENLIT 149
11/03/15
Works Cited
Bowen, Pecs. "An Alternative Interpretation of Emily Dickinson's - I Dwell in Possibility."
The Newness. N.p., 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Reading Edition. Massachusetts:
Harvard UP, 2005.
Melani, Lilia. "Because I Could Not Stop for Death." Because I Could Not Stop for
Death,. N.p., 26 Feb. 2009. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.