Version 1
My Wheel is in the dark.
I cannot see a spoke -
Yet know it's dripping feet
Go round and round.
My foot is on the tide -
An unfrequented road
Yet have all roads
A "Clearing" at the end.
Some have resigned the Loom -
Some - in the busy tomb
Find quaint employ.
Some with new - stately feet
Pass royal thro' the gate
Flinging the problem back, at you and I.
[edit] Version 2
My Wheel is in the dark!
I cannot see a spoke
Yet know it's dripping feet
Go round and round.
My foot is on the Tide!
An unfrequented road -
Yet have all roads
A "Clearing" at the end -
Some have resigned the Loom -
Some in the busy tomb
Find quaint employ -
Some with new - stately feet -
Pass royal thro' the gate -
Flinging the problem back
At you and I!
[edit] Version 3
My wheel is in the dark!
I cannot see a spoke
Yet know its dripping feet
Go round and round.
My foot is on the Tide!
An unfrequented road —
Yet have all roads
A clearing at the end —
Some have resigned the Loom —
Some in the busy tomb
Find quaint employ —
Some with new — stately feet —
Pass royal through the gate —
Flinging the problem back
At you and I!
Had to read this poem a few times, as I could not glean or find an understanding in what is
being said here, in Emily's poem. However, after reading the three versions three times each I believe this poem is dealing with Emily's Biblical references, Jesus walking on the water. The loom I am not exactly sure, unless it refers to the spoke and wheel. This reference to the wheel may be in reference to St Catherine whose symbol is the wheel.
There may be an obscure allusion to the Greek wheel. However, in Roman times, saints were often murdered on a wheel. The loom could refer to a wheel as the spinning wheel, or it could be the maker of fabric, like the wheel would be the maker of distance.
The wheel representing a means to a end; or a symbol of travelling to Heaven eg "Gates". Again Emily is deliberately elusive as to create mystery and much mystique. Let's go throgh the poem in four lines each (I find this easier for myself and the reader).
For the sake of convenience I will analyze the first version of each poem unless otherwise
stated.
"My Wheel is in the dark.
I cannot see a spoke -
Yet know it's dripping feet
Go round and round."*
I believe Emily is saying "My journey "is in the dark"* that she "cannot see a spoke"* or where exactly she is going on her spiritual journey here on earth. The end is not entirely understood by Emily. Yet she does "know it's dripping feet"* reference to Jesus' feet being wash by Mary Magdelene with the expensive oil, an act of humility and honour. Dripping feet also has a few other allusions such as Jesus walking on the water, and Jesus' blood being "dripping" on the cross. Feet here being something very personal to Emily and maybe the exact meaning to what she is meaning is left somewhat aloof.
The "dripping feet go round and round". Maybe Emily is referencing her personal lexicon; her
often used symbol of the earth spinning on its "rotation". So her "dripping feet" covered in the blood of Jesus, or having walked on water, or having been washed of her sins (I am not sure exactly which reference here so I am including all of the possible Christian references here, you might be able to find more. If so, please let me know! Thank-you!).
So Emily would be going "round and round" on the earth with her wet feet. Being a poet maybe she is dangling her feet in the pond on her acerage at Amherst, MA. Although, this may be another Christ reference pertaining to the Image of Christ as well. Could Emily be sitting on a wagon her feet becoming wet from the mud puddles, especially in the spring, without proper footwear, etc. Her suffering cold and wet "dripping" feet, as she "takes one for Christ", becomes a sufferer or martry trying to take away Jesus' pain suffered on the Cross? Hard to say at this time, but it could be? Did Emily suffer with foot problems? Only her podiatrist knows for sure!
To psycholanalyze this poem one might think that Emily had a "Christ complex". Or maybe that is how her new found religion or spiritual pursuits has made her contemplate life at this time. She does consider herself to be sacrificial her with her "I" references.
Emily thinks of herself as this Christ figure as a sacrificial pascal lamb, like Jesus. Maybe she suffered for her art, for her poetry, her astute intellectual and emotional sensitive, her poetic self; a self-portrait in this poem. Maybe she is wholly engaged to the mystique of having a deeply personal relationship with her own individualized Creator. This is the way she is trying to discern the truth of her reality.
"My foot is on the tide -
An unfrequented road
Yet have all roads
A "Clearing" at the end."*
"My foot is on the tide" sounds to me like walking on water. Emily is on "unfrequented road"
maybe a new road, a new discovery the "road less taken" reference to a more contemporary poet Robert Frost 1916; a little after Emily's poem. However, the meme is definitely there; "the road not taken". Maybe this phrase could have been a popular idiom during Victorian days; this to be discovered with further research! The "Clearing" being capitalized must have some deep allegorical meaning for Emily as the "Clearing" connotes a way in the wilderness and as in the previous poem a way out of the snake filled woods or evil world. The clearing could be by the lake by the village where the "Bargemen" reign; the angels that wait at the river Styx by Poisidon to take the dearly departed to the other side of Hades(Greek) or ot Heaven(Biblical). Emily's cross-reference of cultures, eg; Ancient Greece and Biblical analogies are often employed in her poems, and is a personal language of symbols specifically registered to Emily Dickinson. (nb: This would be a further Ancient Greek mythological reference).
"Some have resigned the Loom -
Some - in the busy tomb
Find quaint employ.
Some with new - stately feet
Pass royal thro' the gate
Flinging the problem back, at you and I."*
This next line in the above stanza is so ecryptic and esoteric; but I will hazard to guess at the reference
here. "Some have resigned the Loom". Again this could mean at least two different ideas.
Resigning the design thus "Loom" of life, maybe even b"loom", or maybe death "looms" which be more of a pun, but something I think Emily, with her quick-wittedness may mean.
So some have resigned to the fact they are going to die as in death always "looms" and they are ready for it. And then some are not resigned they are already in the tomb, literally and figuratively, maybe even spiritually!
And then some "with new - stately feet (not the dripping feet or sweaty toiling feet maybe?) are given these new spiritual feet because they have entered into Heaven thus "pass royal through the gate" and these heavenly beings now "fling the problem back at you and I". Or pass the torch so to speak, that all of us have to come to terms spiritually with life and death. Not sure what Emily means by "fling" I think it is a bit of a joke here, a rather sardonic and sarcastic dig at those who would choose to ignore the inevitable death awaiting or "looming" on the far shore. Water a constantly used symbol of rebirth into the heavenly realms by Emily.
Chiccoreal's logb Understanding via way of Poetry as per Jane Jones channelling the spirit of the Divine Miss Emily Dickinson
The Earth Is In The Dark
As the wheel turns
So does the earth
Churning and grinding
it's pinions
Waiting for no man
to take the time
to pull their dripping
feet out of the Bethesda pool
waiting for spiritual healing
and blessings
Be assured
Wide is the the road
and Narrow is the gate
To Heaven
jj
No comments:
Post a Comment