UNIT 3 EMILY DICKINSON: Because I Could Not

Stop for Death, A Thought Went Up My Mind

Today, Death Sets a Thing Significant
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
3.3 Because I could not Stop for Death
3.3.1 Introduction
3.3.2 The Text
3.3.3 Glossary
3.3.4 A Critical Appreciation
3.3.5 Themes/ Questions for Discussion
3.4 A Thought Went up My Mind Today
3.4.1 Introduction
3.4.2 The Text
3.4.3 An Analysis of the Poem
3.4.4 Themes/ Questions for Discussion
3.5 Death Sets a Thing Significant
3.5.1 Introduction
3.5.2 The Text
3.5.3 Glossary
3.5.4 A Critical Evaluation of the Poem
3.5.5 Themes/Questions for Discussion
3.6 Let Us Sum Up
3.7 Answers to Self-check Exercises

3.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit you will be able to:
• write about Emily Dickinson’s life and work
• critically evaluate Dickinson’s poetry in detail with reference to:
i) Because I could not Stop for Death
ii) A Thought Went up my Mind
iii) Death Sets a Thing Significant

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Emily Dickinson is a remarkably singular American poet. Her favourite themes include
love, death, immortality, friendship and nature. Her poems are noted for her terse style
and deft use of symbols and images. She published only seven poems during her
lifetime, that too, anonymously. However, she attained widespread popularity and an
ever increasing acceptance among critics. Her unconventional uses of the mechanics of
language like the frequent use of dashes, ungrammatical phrasing, strange and stunning
images, and, aphoristic wit have influenced many of the 20th century poets.
As one of the foremost women writers of the 19th century America too, Dickinson gains
significance. But she didn’t associate with the simmering feminist idealsand struggles.
She led a life of solitude and kept away from society as far as possible. Feminist critics
read in her poems the feelings and frustrations of a typical ‘caged’ nineteenth century

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woman writer for whom poetry was an outlet for suppressed emotions. You would see
more about her almost reclusive life in the next section where her biographical details are
given.

3.2 EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886)

Emily Dickinson was born on 10th December 1830 at Amherst, Massachusetts. Her
father, Edward Dickinson was a respected state legislator, Congressman and judge. We
know very little of her early life. Most of her lifetime was spent in Amherst itself except
for a few brief visits to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. She spent a few years at a
primary school and later attended Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary. Even in childhood she used to withdraw from the world outside her home.
This tendency became more evident as she grew up and in her youth she became a total
recluse who never left her parental house and garden. It is said that she was reluctant to
receive visitors, stopped attending church services, and dressed in white clothes alone.

Nevertheless, she managed to keep her friendship with many through

her correspondence. The Letters of Emily Dickinson published in 1958 is the source of
her biographical details. The letters also delineate her emotional and aesthetic life,
though in a rather veiled manner. We may assume from the letters she wrote to someone
whom she addressed as ‘Master’ that she went through several emotional crises in her
twenties. In the poems written during this period she gives vent to her frustrated hopes
and transitory delights. Her poetic output during 1862 was prolific writing about three
hundred and fifty poems. They reveal a desperate soul’s poignant attempts to seek
meaning in a steadily shrinking personal world.

The same year she sent some of her poems to the critic, Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Despite his positive response, the poems didn’t get published. By the time of her death
on 15th May 1886, she wrote about 1775 poems which assured her posthumous
reputation as a poet of rare charm. After her death, her sister Lavinia found her
manuscript in her room. The first collection of Dickinson’s poems, edited by Higginson
and Mabel L. Todd was published in 1890. Six more volumes of her poems were
published in between 1914 and 1937 and they were edited by Dickinson’s niece, Martha
Dickinson Binachi and Alfred L. Hampson.
Self-check Exercise I
1) Where did Emily Dickinson spend most of her life?
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2) What is peculiar about the poet’s life?
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3) What is the source of Emily Dickinson’s biographical details?
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4) Was Dickinson famous as a poet during her lifetime?
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5) Who edited the first collection of Dickinson’s poems?
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3.3 BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH

3.3.1 Introduction

Have you ever read a poem or short story dealing with death? How death is usually
presented in folklore and literature? Isn’t death often picturised as something grave,
somber, painful or formidable? Well, here is a poem that looks at death from a different
angle.
The poem deals with death and immortality in a manner that is quite singular. It is often
referred to as “The Chariot,” a title that evokes its central image of the chariot ride with
death, the amiable gentleman caller who comes to take the poet out on a ride. The poem
presents the coming of Death as a casual event. It begins rather abruptly, calling attention
to the unexpected arrival of death personified as a polite gentleman. There is one more
traveller, Immortality. Since the soul is immortal it may be regarded as a journey towards
eternity.

Now read the poem and refer to the glossary.

3.3.2 The Text

Because I could not stop for Death–
He kindly stopped for me–
The carriage held just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – he knew no haste 5

And I had put away
My labour and my leisure too,
For his civility–

We passed the school, where children strove

At recess in the ring– 10
We passed the fields of gazing grain–
We passed the setting sun–

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 Or rather– he passed us–
The dews grew quivering and chill–
For only gossamer, my gown 15
My tippet– only tulle–

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground–
The roof was scarcely visible–
The cornice– in the ground– 20

Since then– ‘tis centuries– and yet

Feels shorter than a day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity–

3.3.3 Glossary
Line 6 put away: given up
7 labour and leisure encompass all her worldly interests and activities she
abandons for Death
8 civility: polite behaviour
9 strove: (here) played
10 at recess: during leisure time
ring: open space
15 gossamer: transparent thin fabric
16 tippet: scarf
tulle: soft fine cloth made of silk or nylon used especially for making veils
20 cornice: a decorative border around the top of the walls in a room or on the
outside walls of a building
23 surmised: guessed

Self-check Exercise II

Now see if you can answer these questions briefly.

1) Who are the travelers in the carriage?
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2) What is the figure of speech employed in the first stanza?
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3) How is death presented in the poem?
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4) Why did the chariot move slowly?
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5) Why had she given up her labour and leisure?
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6) What do the school, the gazing grain and the setting sun signify?
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7) Where did the chariot stop?
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8) Why does the house seem to be a swelling of the ground?
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9) Why does the poet feel that the centuries seem shorter than the day?
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10) What was the destination of the chariot?
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You must have answered most of the questions. Read the next section carefully and see
if you need to modify your answers. The next section is followed by a few more
questions which should be answered in detail.

3.3.4 A Critical Appreciation

“Because I could not Stop for Death”, as Allen Tate calls it, is “one of the perfect and
greatest poems in the English language.” The poem deals with Death and Immortality,
two recurring themes in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. The poem conceives of death in
terms of routine life, not as something alien and sublime. The poet has a clear perception
which manifests in the precision of images chosen by her.

Death is presented as a gentleman who has kindly stopped to take the poet out on a drive
in his carriage. The world “kindly” (line 2) defines the sort of relationship between the
poet and death. The loneliness of the journey with Death is dispelled by the presence of
Immortality, the companion of Death. It also brings in a religious element since death is
the gateway to immortality in religious thought. However, the terror of Death is
diminished by presenting it as a kind gentleman suitor taking a lady out for a ride. He
has the compassionate mission of taking her out of the woes of the world.

The relationship between the poet and Death is further defined in the second stanza. It is
a smooth, unstrained relationship. Death is in no hurry; the poet affirms that he “knew no
haste” (line 5). Death shows an easy familiar intimacy that is reassuring for the poet. The
poet bids farewell to the world. Though too preoccupied with life like most human
beings to wait for death she leaves her labour and leisure, that is, her worldly interests

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and possessions. The unhurried movement the carriage also hints at the slow–paced
hearse heading on to the burial ground.

The third stanza presents the poet’s intensely conscious leave taking of the
world. Dickinson renders it through a fine economy of words. The poet presents
three images: playing school children, fields of grain and the setting sun. They seem
to represent the three stages in human life, childhood, maturity and old age. The labour
and leisure of the second stanza are made concrete in the in the joyous activity of the
children at play. And it is contrasted with the passivity of nature (the gazing grain). The
indifference of nature to the death of human beings is highlighted by transferring the
final stare in the dead traveller’s eyes to the gazing grain. The setting sun brings in the
eternal darkness associated with death. The sequence of images can also be explained as
the natural route of a funeral procession, passing the school, the outlaying cornfields of
the village and moving on to the remote cemetery.

When the poet says that the carriage passed the setting sun she has not come to terms
with the unknown realms into which she has now entered. But soon she realises her
mistake and comprehends that she is out of the bounds human time. Eternity is a world
of boundless time and so she corrects herself by saying that the sun passed them. Sun,
the assured mark of the passage of time for life on earth is no longer valid for the poet.
She speaks of the bitter cold she experienced in the fourth stanza. As the dews descent
“quivering and chill” she realises what it feels to come to rest in the cold damp ground.
The gown and scarf she wore were so thin and could not protect her from cold.
According to some critics gossamer and tippet are the common funeral dress of
women. Moreover, Death is traditionally associated with chillness and cold.

The carriage stops at a house that seems “a swelling of the ground.” Evidently it is
suggestive of the mound over a grave. Moreover the roof of the house was too low to be
easily visible. Besides, its cornice is in the ground. Such details of herdescription of the
house identify it with the grave. But the tomb’s horror is alleviated by the fact that the
journey has not ended there. They are merely pausing there as though it is a hospice form
where the journey will resume.

The final stanza of the poem seems to project the last sensations before her world fades
out. She refers to a single visible object, the horses’ heads, recalled in a flash of memory.
That was the first object on which her eyes were fixed throughout the journey with
death. Moreover the reference to the horses’ heads brings to our mind the carriage in the
opening stanza. The chariot reaches the limits of mortality when it stops at the house of
death. It is not her real destination. The poet says that centuries have passed. It shows the
transition from time to eternity. Yet she feels it to be shorter than a day. Human
dimension of time is irrelevant in the timeless world of eternity.

The poem is flawless in employing precise and discrete images which enhance the
central image of the chariot ride with Death. But the chariot relentlessly moves on to the
mysterious world of eternity. By civilizing death and by familiarising herself with it, it is
made tolerable. Throughout the poem Death is viewed from diverse perspectives. It is a
welcome relief from life’s tension and so the poet is ready for a calm ride with it. It
heightens one’s satisfaction with life and so the poet is ready to discard her labour and
leisure. It leads one to a finer world beyond the temporal devoid of the trials and
tribulations of everyday existence. Thus the poet portrays death as a solemn guide that
leads man to immortality.

3.3.5 Themes/Questions for Discussion

1) What is the central theme of the poem?

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2) How does Dickinson portray death?
3) What symbols does the poet employ?
4) The role of Immortality in the poem.
5) Is there a central image in the poem? How does it unify the thematic and structural
elements in the poem?

3.4 A THOUGHT WENT UP MY MIND TODAY

3.4.1 Introduction
Isn’t it quite usual for all of us to have recurring thoughts? What have you felt when a
thought or recollection comes to your mind unexpectedly after an interval of time? Do
such thoughts trouble you? Or do you just ignore them as irrelevant? Well, a poet’s
response to such things which we think as trivial may lead to significant ideas and
insight into life. Even shapeless ideas can lead to something worthwhile.
Read this short poem by Emily Dickinson and try to make sense of it.

3.4.2 The Text

A thought went up my mind today
That I have had before,
But did not finish,—some way back,
I could not fix the year,

Nor where it went, nor why it came

The second time to me,
Nor definitely what it was,
Have I the art to say.

But somewhere in my soul, I know

I’ve met the thing before;
It just reminded me—’t was all—
And came my way no more.
Self-check Exercise III
Now that you have read the poem try to answer the following questions:
1) Was it the first time that the thought occurred to the poet?
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2) Was the thought a clearly defined one?
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3) Does the poet specify when she had the thought before?
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4) Does the poet say why it is repeated?
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5) Why does the poet keep the nature of the thought a mystery?
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Now read the analysis of the poem in the next section and try to have a
deeper understanding of the poem

3.4.4 An Analysis of the Poem

On the surface level the poem is quite simple though what the poet says about is rather
vague. She thought of something on a day that she hadn’t thought of for a long time. She
doesn’t know why she stopped thinking about it back then. Also, she cannot say why she
thought about it again, after so long. In fact, she couldn’t even say for sure what the
thought was. All she knows is that the thought gave her a brief moment of realization
and then disappeared. Thus at the centre of the poem is a paradox as the poet is
describing something which she cannot clearly define.
The poem begins by referring to a very commonplace occurrence. A thought props up in
the poet’s mind. It is a thought that she had had before. But then the thought was not a
finished, clearly defined one. She does not remember how long before she had this
thought first. She cannot remember the exact time of its previous occurrence. So the
description is rather vague. But the poet is not telling us about something concrete,
which registers through the senses. The poet is attempting to convey something – a
thought – which is abstract. Therefore, the vague description suits the theme of the
poem. Furthermore thoughts spring from the mind which too, cannot be defined in
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The poet cannot remember where the thought went to or why such a thought occurred to
her. That is, the occasion of the thought or the source which inspired it is also kept in the
dark. Why it recurred too, is unknown. The poet says in clear terms that she cannot say
definitely what it was, thus emphasizing its shapeless and elusive nature. The poet says
that she lacks the skill to describe it in specific clear cut terms. Despite the fact that the
poet is unable to say precisely what the thought is, it is not totally unknown to her. Deep
within her soul she knows that it is familiar to her. That is why she is able to realise that
it has occurred to her in the past. The reappearance of the thought was just a reminder
and it never comes to the poet again.

The poet is unable to give a precise expression to the thought. But a thought exists when
we can say what it is. An author can express any thought that crosses her mind, at least
approximately. The poet insists on keeping us in the dark about the nature and reason
behind the thought. Therefore, it is obvious that thought itself does not form the subject
matter of the poem. The thought becomes a metaphor for the mysteries of human
existence. It may allude to life itself which we cannot define in precise terms in spite of
the fact that we have an awareness about it. Again, the inexpressibility of the thought
may also refer to the mysterious working of the human mind. The working of the mind is
as unpredictable as the appearance and vanishing of the thought and is as indescribable
as the elusive thought that defies explanation in specific terms. It may also refer to the
creation of art. A work of art emanates from the creative mind of an artist but how it
evolves or why it came into being remains a mystery. Thus Emily Dickinson looks into
the many mysteries that hover over our existence which elude exact description even
though we are conscious of them.

3.4.5 Themes/Questions for Discussion

1) How do you account for the characteristic vagueness of the poem?

2) What does the poet say about the thought she had?
3) The possible metaphorical dimensions of the mysterious thought.

3.5 DEATH SETS A THING SIGNIFICANT

3.5.1 Introduction
Doesn’t an insignificant thing become valuable when it is given to you by someone dear
to you? Don’t you prize little things that someone beloved gave you? This common
experience of humanity forms the background of this poem which discusses how death
transforms things that we regard too commonplace to take notice of, things we usually
take for granted. Dickinson thinks over the effect of death on commonplace things of
little relevance. For all of us little things become significant for their emotional value.

This is true of artifacts too. Artifacts are valued more after the death of the person who
made them. That is, Death endows them with an emotional value. Last works are often
valued as memorials of the departed. Commonplace and insignificant things are prized
especially for the reason that they are souvenirs of our loved ones.

Now read on the poem carefully and try to answer the questions that follow

3.5.2 The Text

Death sets a thing significant
The eye had hurried by,
Except a perished creature
Entreat us tenderly

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To ponder little workmanships 5
In crayon or in wool,
With “This was last her fingers did,”
Industrious until

The thimble weighed too heavy,

The stitches stopped themselves, 10
And then’t was put among the dust
Upon the closet shelves.

A book I have, a friend gave,

Whose pencil, here and there,
Had notched the place that pleased him, — 15
At rest his fingers are.

Now, when I read, I read not,

For interrupting tears
Obliterate the etchings
Too costly for repairs. 20

3.5.3 Glossary
Line 3 a perished creature: some dear departed
Line 5 workmanships: skilled works of art or craft
Line 8 Industrious: hardworking; making too much effort
Line 9 thimble: a small metal or plastic object you wear on your finger to protect it when
sewing
Line 15 notched: made markings
Self-check Exercise IV
1) What does the poet mean by the phrase “Death sets a thing significant”?
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2) How do we usually regard commonplace things?
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3) What change does death bring in our perception of ordinary little things?
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4) Why do we find little things significant after the death of a dear one?
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5) What is special about the book the poet’s friend gave her?
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6) Why does the poet say that her fingers are at rest?
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7) Why does the poet find it difficult to read the book?
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3.5.4 A Critical Evaluation of the Poem

The poem opens with a statement of its theme, which is that death makes things more
significant. We usually overlook things that are part of our day-to-day life and the little
things that belong to or made by our dear ones. The poet goes on to describe finding a
friend’s writing and sketches- things which “the eye had hurried by” previously that have
now become meaningful after the death of the friend.

In the second stanza Dickinson evokes a common feeling experienced after the loss of a
dear one: the desire to think over the traces left by the dear departed. Now the trivial
“workmanships'' in crayon or wool are strangely transformed. They become almost as
significant as the person who died. They gain importance and become valuable as the
things in which the beloved was last engaged in. They are the things that our loved ones
created last and as they are now dead themselves seem to be ingrained in what they have
left behind.

The industrious work of the departed must have been put to a sudden halt by death. The
last work of the poet’s friend had the same fate as her life. Her work continued until her
body could no longer function and the sewing stopped. So the thimble weighed too

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heavy for her fingers and the stitches automatically stopped. Her work was “put among
the dust; upon the closet shelves” just as her body was buried in the grave.

Then the poet speaks about a book her friend gave her. There are markings in pencil
inside the book. But the fingers that made those marks are at rest now. Herfriend’s
etchings in the pages of the book are insignificant as such. But they become invaluable
as they remind a dear friend who has passed away. As she attempts to read the book now
it becomes impossible to continue reading. Tears fill her eyes and blur her sight.
Teardrops may fall on the pages and obliterate the markings made by the friend which
are invaluable and too costly for repairs. Dickinson narrates how insignificant things
become unique and precious after the death of a dear one.

3.5.5 Themes/Questions for Discussion

1) How does death transform insignificant things?
2) The novelty of Dickinson’s perspective on death.
3) What aspect of death does the poet highlight in the poem?

3.6 LET US SUM UP

In this unit you read about one of the most significant American women poets, Emily
Dickinson. You read about her strange life, and the features of her poetry that make her
poems uniquely attractive. Finally you studied three of her lyrics in detail. You should
now be able to appreciate, analyse and discuss Dickinson’s poetry in general and the
three poems in depth.

3.7 ANSWERS TO SELF-CHECK EXERCISES

Self-check Exercise I
1) In her native town of Amherst.
2) She withdrew from the outside world and became a recluse. Practically, she never
left her parental house.
3) The Letters of Emily Dickinson
4) No. She gained reputation as a poet posthumously.
5) Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel L. Todd

Self-Check Exercise II
1) Death, Immortality and the Poet are the travellers in the carriage.
2) Personification.
3) Death is presented as a gentleman who has kindly stopped to take the poet out on a
drive in the carriage.
4) Death is in no hurry. So they drove slowly. Moreover, a funeral procession usually
moves in a slow pace.
5) The poet had given up her labour and leisure as a sign of politeness to Death. She
had to give up her worldly interests and pleasures to accompany Death.

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6) They represent the three stages in human life. The school, the gazing grain and the
setting sun symbolise childhood, maturity and old age respectively.
7) The chariot stopped before a house that seemed a swelling of the ground, that is, the
grave.
8) The house where they reach is the grave itself. The phrase ‘a swelling of the ground’
is suggestive of the mound of earth over a grave.
9) Death has taken the poet to the world of eternity where the human notion of time is
irrelevant. So the poet feels that though centuries have passed it is shorter than a
day.
10) The destination of the chariot was eternity. Thought it stopped at the grave, the
chariot of Death leads the poet into the world of immortality.
Self-Check Exercise III
1) No. the thought has occurred to the poet before.
2) No, it was rather a vague thought. She cannot say exactly what the thought was.
3) The poet does not specify when she had the thought before. She cannot remember
how long before it occurred to her. But she knows that it is recurring now.
4) The poet does not know why the thought is repeating. She is unaware of the occasion
or the source of inspiration for such a repetitive thought.
5) The poet is trying to convey something that is abstract. So she keeps the nature of the
thought a mystery. The thought is shapeless and elusive as it is a metaphor for the
mystery of human existence.
Self-Check Exercise IV
1) The poet refers to the strange power of death to make commonplace
things significant and valuable.
2) We usually overlook things that are part of our everyday life. We
ignore commonplace things that belong to or made by our dear ones.
3) After the death of our dear ones we regard the ordinary little things that belong to
them precious and significant.
4) The little things become almost as significant as the person who died. They gain
importance and become valuable as things that belonged to the dear departed.
5) Inside the book there are markings in pencil made by the friend. They are the last
markings the dear friend made and so they are precious.
6) The poet says that her fingers are at rest because the friend is dead.
7) The poet finds it difficult to read the book because it reminds her of the dead friend.
Tears fill her eyes and blur her sight. So it is difficult for her to continue reading.

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 Supplementary Reading

A Child Said, What Is The Grass?

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;

How could I answer the child. . .I do not know what it is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,

A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,

And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the
same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,

It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and
from offspring taken soon out of their mother’s laps,
And here you are the mother’s laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!

And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of
their laps.

What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere;

The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,

And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

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Walt Whitman
Prayer of Columbus
It was near the close of his indomitable and pious life—on his last voyage when nearly
70 years of age—that Columbus, to save his two remaining ships from foundering in the
Caribbean Sea in a terrible storm, had to run them ashore on the Island of Jamaica—
where, laid up for a long and miserable year—1503—he was taken very sick, had several
relapses, his men revolted, and death seem’d daily imminent; though he was eventually
rescued, and sent home to Spain to die, unrecognized, neglected and in want......It is
only ask’d, as preparation and atmosphere for the following lines, that the bare authentic
facts be recall’d and realized, and nothing contributed by the fancy. See, the Antillean
Island, with its florid skies and rich foliage and scenery, the waves beating the solitary
sands, and the hulls of the ships in the distance. See, the figure of the great Admiral,
walking the beach, as a stage, in this sublimest tragedy—for what tragedy, what
poem, so piteous and majestic as the real scene?—and hear him uttering—as his mystical
and religious soul surely utter’d, the ideas following—perhaps, in their equivalents, the
very words.

A BATTER’D, wreck’d old man,

Thrown on this savage shore, far, far from home,
Pent by the sea, and dark rebellious brows, twelve dreary months,
Sore, stiff with many toils, sickened, and nigh to death,
I take my way along the island’s edge,
Venting a heavy heart.

I am too full of woe!

Haply, I may not live another day;
I can not rest, O God—I can not eat or drink or sleep,
Till I put forth myself, my prayer, once more to Thee,
Breathe, bathe myself once more in Thee—commune with Thee,
Report myself once more to Thee.

Thou knowest my years entire, my life,

(My long and crowded life of active work—not adoration merely;)

Thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth;

Thou knowest my manhood’s solemn and visionary meditations;
Thou knowest how, before I commenced, I devoted all to come to Thee;
Thou knowest I have in age ratified all those vows, and strictly kept them;
Thou knowest I have not once lost nor faith nor ecstasy in Thee;
(In shackles, prison’d, in disgrace, repining not,
Accepting all from Thee—as duly come from Thee.)

All my emprises have been fill’d with Thee,

My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts of Thee,
Sailing the deep, or journeying the land for Thee;
Intentions, purports, aspirations mine—leaving results to Thee.

O I am sure they really come from Thee!

The urge, the ardor, the unconquerable will,
The potent, felt, interior command, stronger than words,
A message from the Heavens, whispering to me even in sleep,
These sped me on.

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By me, and these, the work so far accomplish’d (for what has been,
has been;)
By me Earth’s elder, cloy’d and stifled lands, uncloy’d, unloos’d;
By me the hemispheres rounded and tied—the unknown to the known.

The end I know not—it is all in Thee;

Or small, or great, I know not—haply, what broad fields, what lands;
Haply, the brutish, measureless human undergrowth I know,
Transplanted there, may rise to stature, knowledge worthy Thee;
Haply the swords I know may there indeed be turn’d to reaping-tools;
Haply the lifeless cross I know—Europe’s dead cross—may bud and
blossom there.

One effort more—my altar this bleak sand:

That Thou, O God, my life hast lighted,
With ray of light, steady, ineffable, vouchsafed of Thee,
(Light rare, untellable—lighting the very light!
Beyond all signs, descriptions, languages!)
For that, O God—be it my latest word—here on my knees,
Old, poor, and paralyzed—I thank Thee.

My terminus near,
The clouds already closing in upon me,
The voyage balk’d—the course disputed, lost,
I yield my ships to Thee.

Steersman unseen! henceforth the helms are Thine;

Take Thou command—(what to my petty skill Thy navigation?)
My hands, my limbs grow nerveless;
My brain feels rack’d, bewilder’d; Let the old timbers part—I will not part!
I will cling fast to Thee, O God, though the waves buffet me;
Thee, Thee, at least, I know.

Is it the prophet’s thought I speak, or am I raving?

What do I know of life? what of myself?

I know not even my own work, past or present;

Dim, ever-shifting guesses of it spread before me,
Of newer, better worlds, their mighty parturition,
Mocking, perplexing me.

And these things I see suddenly—what mean they?

As if some miracle, some hand divine unseal’d my eyes,
Shadowy, vast shapes, smile through the air and sky,
And on the distant waves sail countless ships,
And anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.
Walt Whitman

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