Dickinson’s Poetry

Abstract

For no other writer in this book does the search for the identity of the self in America assume the intensely concentrated form it assumes in Dickinson’s poetry. None of the others is as unrelievedly absorbed in the mystery of self as she is. To begin my demonstration of these points, I shall look first at poem 528:¹

Mine — by the Right of the White Election!

Mine — by the Royal Seal!

Mine — by the Sign in the Scarlet prison —

Bars — cannot conceal!

Mine — here — in Vision — and in Veto!

Mine — by the Grave’s Repeal —

Titled — Confirmed — Delirious Charter!

Mine — long as Ages steal!

This poem can seem impenetrably private. As with many of Dickinson’s poems, it is not even clear what its tone should be. Does it have an exulting voice, or a voice of calm deliberation? It is about possession, but what is possessed is unknown or cannot be stated. Nor can it be made clear by what right something is possessed. ‘White Election’, ‘Royal Seal’ and ‘Scarlet prison’ look and sound as if they each have an objective, public meaning, but they haven’t.