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her knowledge of domestic space, by means of both metaphor and comparison. From the analysis of the poems, I discover the similarity of the working pattern of
Dickinson’s spatial concept. Though staying mostly in her bedroom, she seems to have no hindrance to perceive the space of the house and the construction of it. For Dickinson, an ideal home in heart and mind is like a bubble that the fingers must not poke. It can be a source of comfort, and at the same time it can be vacant and empty.
The circumference of such home is drawn by the accumulation of possibility when the poet “spread[s] wide [her] narrow hands to gather paradise” (Fr 466). To unveil the secret of life, the poet composes riddles after riddles to perform her making of home.
4.3 Emily Dickinson’s Making of Home
As Jean Mudge discussed in her analysis of Dickinson’s poems, she explored Dickinson’s construction of a figurative notion of home, that the poet’s intention, “as she says in ending her carpentry poem, is to ‘build Temples,’ the architecture of her house, the house of poetry” (Mudge 92). From Mudge’s view, Dickinson works as a builder of her house, which is constructed by poetry. The house she built during her lifetime was never publicized. She intended to build the house of poetry in secrecy, making the house hidden. It seemed contradictory though, because Dickinson required her sister Lavinia Dickinson to burn all the poems and letters left behind; she wanted to destroy what she built in her entire life. Different from Mudge’s idea that
Dickinson builds a house of poetry, which Dickinson later wanted to burn down, I study it as a construction of a house of experience. The notion of making of home comes from the poet’s realization of the expandability of her inner realm. When the intangible inner realm extends, it reaches out to make the encounters happen. In making a home, through the vigor of her life experiences, Dickinson constructs a realm of home which is located within her. As previously discussed, the influence of
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Dickinson’s home comes as an agreement of a product of mutual interrelations between Dickinson’s own conception of a home and the house itself. The architecture of a house defines and shapes the characteristics of its inhabitant; at the same time, the inhabitant forms the cognition of what a home is. The process of home-making is an ongoing accumulation of what we called circumference. Gathering the experiences in life is a certain expansion and extension of force that go inwardly and outwardly with the accumulation of the experiences. It is how Dickinson starts the making of home, which allows her to expand, making circumference drawn, while staying at the same spot. The experiences in life all together form the essence of circumference, and the strength within the process creates the extensibility. Thus, the making of home concentrates on the inner vigorousness and development. The strong intention to express herself through the power of words cannot even satisfy the poet, that she once feels herself “not expressed strongly enough” (L 342a). Her mind is vigorous and active, it is like a new place every single day, and the poet often feels her “mind is such a new place, last night feels obsolete” (L 354).
One of the definition from the Lexicon describes the circumference as “expanded perception of life,” “experience,” and “center of being” (EDL). The word’s
explanation coincide with that of “encounter” in the Lexicon, which explicates the word encounter as “to meet” (EDL). To “meet,” in the Lexicon is defined as
“experience” (EDL), which echoes with the word encounter. By the significant moments in life, Dickinson takes the encounter as experiences that can enlarge the inner realm. The significant moments in Dickinson’s life do not make themselves important only in her mind and memory. It is a process of encounter. To encounter means to cross the boundary. To cross the boundary means to determine the
encompassing line of the boundary, join the circuit of the flight, and along the circular journey of the flight one makes the encounter possible to happen. And since
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“circumference” is a center of being itself, the lack of core status is not a trouble any longer. While accumulating the experiences, Dickinson gathers the moments and transforms them to power. Dickinson knows that one must learn of the mystery of life before striving for an answer for the mystery. Heart is where carries the loading; it takes, and it extends. When a heart extends, the encounter can be made possible, and the circumference can be formed.
The preciousness of the encounter lies in the difference it makes after the
encountering moment. In Dickinson’s famous poem “I started Early—Took my Dog,”
the poet describes the transformation after the encounter. The poem, which is often approached with the exploration of a love theme and an examination of erotic desire, is re-examined here to explore the encountering moment:
I started Early - Took my Dog - And visited the Sea -
The Mermaids in the Basement Came out to look at me -
And Frigates - in the Upper Floor Extended Hempen Hands - Presuming Me to be a Mouse - Aground - upon the Sands -
But no Man moved Me - till the Tide Went past my simple Shoe -
And past my Apron - and my Belt And past my Bodice - too -
And made as He would eat me up - As wholly as a Dew
Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve - And then - I started - too -
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And He - He followed - close behind - I felt His Silver Heel
Upon my Ankle - Then my Shoes Would overflow with Pearl -
Until We met the Solid Town - No One He seemed to know And bowing - with a Mighty look - At me - The Sea withdrew -
(Fr 656)
The opening of the poem suggests that the story happens in a vague time, for we only know the speaker “started early.” She took a companion with her, and visited the sea.
The description of the sea scene then shifts from realistic to imaginative. The sea is described as a well-constructed building which has a basement and an upper floor, showing that the poet intends to build up a space with a housing structure. The encounter begins with imaginative residents from the sea. “[T]he mermaids,” came out to “look at” the speaker. It was a direct confrontation. The act of “looking at” does not ordinarily happen within strangers, suggesting that the encounter is with an
intention. The mysterious creatures from the sea “came out” to greet the speaker when the speaker took the visit.
The encountering position shifts from basement to the upper floor of the sea. The
“frigate,” a boat functions as transporting vehicles on the ocean, can also be explained as “means of exploration” and “source of adventure” (EDL). The encounter is a confrontation between the speaker and the sea, an exploring and adventurous one. The extent of the encounter here with the frigate is an even more direct interaction—the frigate “extended” hands to reach the speaker. The interaction is a demanding one, since the speaker here is to be commanded to be a “mouse,” a small animal that is often seen as a gate-crasher in the house. Expressing the confusion of such
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encountering moment, the speaker states her situation of being stranded: “aground – upon the sands.” The encounter here seems to pause for a while, after such direct interaction with the creatures of the ocean. “Aground,” which means being marooned at the shore upon “sands,” and considered as “wilderness” in the Lexicon, suggests the direct confrontation with the sea leads the speaker not to a certainty but more to an unexpected meeting. She remains still in such wilderness, till the arrival of the “tide.”
The coming of the tide brings the encounter to a more intense degree. The
direction of the interaction is also an upward one, with the order from “shoe,” “apron,”
“belt,” “bodice.” Shoe in the definition of the Lexicon is linked to “route,” “path” and
“track.” When the encounter is made happen, it first starts from the route of the participant. With openness that so surprisingly welcomes the coming of the tide, the speaker even releases her protective outer wearing, the “apron.” Not remaining protective and armed to this outer force of the tide, the speaker welcomes the tide without controls and restraints. She gives up her “belt” to let the tide come pass on it.
The belt is a “covenant setting apart from others,” and if the speaker let go of the belt, she was suggesting that the encounter was a frenzied one.5 She finally lets the tide come at her chest, where is the locale of the heart. The motion of the coming up of the tide is a fast and continuous one. The conjunction “and” suggests a fast-coming tone of the taking over.
The extent of the encounter tends to be fiercer, that for a moment the speaker even thinks she is to be eaten up by the tide, “as wholly as dew on a dandelion.”
Though the encounter seems to be a confrontation between an overwhelming force of
5 Some scholars analyze the poem from erotic aspect, suggesting that Dickinson is implying her strong desire of sex and the welcoming for her lover. The imaginative encounter can be a sexual desire for someone in the poet’s mind. Others see the poem as a confrontation with an authoritative power that overwhelms the speaker. Apart from the erotic and the suggested analysis, I focus on the essence of the encountering moment of the speaker and the sea.
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the sea and the smallness of the speaker, here I suggest the encounter is not a total overwhelming one; instead, it is an encounter helpful to the affirmation of the self of the speaker. She stays calm in the encountering with the tide, as if a quiet storyteller who is recollecting her memory and organizing it to share with her listeners. The encounter being helpful to the speaker for an accumulation of experience in life lies in the word “started” in the end of the stanza.
The interrelation between the speaker and the tide shifts from “the speaker to the sea,” “the sea (the tide) to the speaker” back to “the speaker to the sea.” After being washed and touched by the sea, she remains who she was. Now, the speaker “started.”
The word suggests that to start is to “begin a trip or journey to a certain destination”
(EDL). Now the speaker is the one who holds the decision for her direction. And this time, the sea “followed.” Stepping backward to somewhere unknown, the speaker intends to move from into the sea to away from the sea. The sea comes behind the speaker, upon her “ankle,” implying “body walking, person stepping” (EDL). The sea can touch the shoes of the speaker; however, this time she does not let the sea take hold of her independency. It is a precious moment. The path of the speaker now would
“overflow with pearl,” which is figuratively explained as “joyous moment,” “precious time of happiness in mortality,” and “rare opportunity to love and be loved” (EDL).
The encountering moment transforms the speaker’s perception of individuality.6
6 The boldness of the welcome indeed reflects what Freud explicated as “depersonalization” (Kristeva 188): “the Uncanny requires just the same the impetus of a new encounter with an unexpected outside element: arousing images of death, automatons, doubles, or the female sex.” What is more closely related to Dickinson is that, Freud continues, “uncanniness occurs when the boundaries between imagination and reality are erased,” and thus the self experiences a conflict between the two and arouse that strange familiarity but vague to describe. “The clash with the other, the identification of the self with that good or bad other that transgresses the fragile boundaries of the uncertain self, would thus be at the source of an uncanny strangeness whose excessive features, as represented in literature, cannot hide its permanent presence in “normal” psychical dynamics” (188-9).
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By the end of the visit, the subject shifts from singular “I” to plural “we.” The encounter which is accumulated into the speaker’s life experiences of visiting the immensity of a natural realm, though coming to an end, leaves its impact to transform the speaker’s perception of the relationship. The change from the singular to the plural suggests that the positions of the speaker and the sea are shifted. The overwhelming sea, standing as the master at the beginning of the speaker’s visit, changes as a
participant to the trip. The speaker and this newly joined participant finally meet with the “solid town.” The confrontation ends here because of out–of–place of the sea. The sea realizes its outsider position where “no one he seemed to know,” and withdraws back into his realm. Within the stepping back of the sea is its “mighty look” at the speaker. The visit is not the end. The encounter will continue. The key moment of the positions between two participants in the encounter lies in the sea’s “bowing” to the speaker. The word has an eluding suggestion of the meaning of “welcome” and
“invite.” Thus, the encounter should not end at the turning back to the solid town, but is an ongoing process for anyone who would search for the precious moment of the encounter to take up the trip to visit “the sea.”
For Dickinson, the encounter is limitless. It should not be confined to an essential or concrete form; rather, the encounter happens with a heart’s invitation to imagination, or with a heart’s awaiting for an unexpected visit. Neither gives in nor gives out, the subjective in Dickinson’s poems encounters with different forms of forces, and withdraws back with the experience of encounter. For the poet, the encounter and the withdrawal, the leaving and the staying, or the welcome and the rejection mutually exist. The encounter makes the circumference of the essence of home grow and be accumulated. Once she crosses the boundary, and to discover the different realm of life, there she gathers all the precious discoveries that form of the circumference. As Edward Casey explicates that, “Everywhere we turn when we build
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and dwell—and we always turn with and upon our lived bodies—we find ourselves turning in the places we have elicited or encountered by our own actions and motions”
(181). The directions of turning and going are not determined. And every place one goes, one constructs and lives. The circumference of home is drawn within the encounter of leaving and turning, which consists of Dickinson’s experiences of life.
The encounters enrich Dickinson’s heart, soul, and mind, and the abundance of the inner realm produces power for the poet to draw the circumference of home.
When the center of being, which is within the circumference, is strong enough, it is able to support the figurative home. The poem “The Props assist the House” reflects such supporting power of the soul, affirming that the inner realm is supportive to stand as a center of being. The poet describes the process of building a house, and when finishing, the support of the house withdraws from the construction, showing strength of the soul:
The Props assist the House Until the House is built And then the Props withdraw And adequate, erect,
The House support itself And cease to recollect
The Augur and the Carpenter - Just such a retrospect
Hath the perfected Life - A past of Plank and Nail
And slowness - then the Scaffolds drop Affirming it a Soul -
(Fr 729)
The poem begins with a constructing process of a house, which is supported and built by the assistance of “the props.” The word “props” is defined as temporary support
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and framework which holds a structure up until it is stable enough to stand on its own.
Unlike every real house that needs supporting structure, the house that the poet describes is a figurative one, since its props is temporary and will withdraw when the house is done. Continuing to praise the independency of the house, the poet describes the house as it stands “adequate” and “erect.” The adjectives are explained in the Lexicon as “capable,” “confident,” and “strong enough to stand” (EDL). Moreover, the word “erect” is “upright and bold.” Without the supporting structure of the house, as the poet puts it, the house confidently sustains itself. It is able, and it is bold enough to stand firm to present itself. The bold quality of the house coincides with that of Dickinson’s own, which is expressed in a letter to the poet’s friend: “I have dare to do strange things – bold things, and have asked no advice from any – I have heeded beautiful tempters, yet do not think I am wrong” (L 35). The house, with adequate and erect boldness, is like the poet herself being dare to be strange (strange that the house can support itself without any props), which makes her life different and in a sense confident. But a question sill lurks between the lines of the poem: how does the house support itself without the entire frame?
When the house is done with construction, not only do the props withdraw from the house, the house itself also “cease[s] to recollect.” The word “recollect” indicates the definitions such as to remember and to perceive. Moreover, the word is linked to explanations such as “become aware of” and “realize the existence of” (EDL). The support of the house withdraws and the house stops remembering “Auger and the Carpenter.” The word “Auger,” originally means carpentry tools, is extended by the Lexicon as “a career of soothsayer” (EDL). If the house stops remembering auger, the poet is indicating that the house casts away the materials and tools during the
construction. Moreover, as the suggestive explication extends, the built house here stops becoming aware of its future. Nor does this figurative house “realize the
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existence of” the carpenter. It ceases to become aware of the existence of the past, nor does it continue to realize the existence of the future.
Is the poet suggesting that once the figurative house is done, it stops looking forward to the future and ceases remembering the past? If logic is as the poet says,
“such a retrospect has the perfected life,” the house is contradictorily looking back at its perfected life, and at the same time ceasing recollecting the past that once being helpful to it. The word “retrospect” means looking back on things past and a past or a background for a life or events. Under such definition, there is something in the past or in the process of construction that this built place wants to forget. Or, it is just that the materials which are used in the constructing process have accomplished their
“such a retrospect has the perfected life,” the house is contradictorily looking back at its perfected life, and at the same time ceasing recollecting the past that once being helpful to it. The word “retrospect” means looking back on things past and a past or a background for a life or events. Under such definition, there is something in the past or in the process of construction that this built place wants to forget. Or, it is just that the materials which are used in the constructing process have accomplished their