Emily Dickinson's life resembled that of a monastic. She lived a quiet life of contemplation, and she filled her poems with flowers, birds, divinity, and immortality.
Most Famous 19th-Century American Poet
Emily Dickinson is probably the most famous American poet of the nineteenth century. Her poems focus on a number of topics including death, philosophy of life, immortality, riddles, birds, flowers, sunsets, people, and many others. She left manuscripts—little bundles of poems called “fascicles”—totaling 1775 poems, and three volumes of letters.
Her active mind and mystical intuition led her to pen some of the most brilliant poetry ever written, full of insight and well-crafted. Her poem, “The Brain—is wider than the Sky,” demonstrates a deep understanding of the nature of the human mind in its relationship to God.
This poemdramatizes a spiritual truth: the human brain is the seat of ultimate wisdom. In yoga philosophy, the highest center of consciousness is the “thousand-petaled lotus” in the brain. The lotus is a flower, of course, used as a metaphor for the functioning of the opening of the center of consciousness during God-union.
In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda explains, “The seventh center, the ‘thousand-petaled lotus’ in the brain, is the throne of the Infinite Consciousness. In the state of divine illumination, the yogi is said to perceive Brahma or God the Creator as Padmaja, ‘the One born of the lotus’.”
It is not likely that Emily Dickinson studied any form of yoga, nor is it likely she was even acquainted with the Bhagavad Gita, which was just being introduced in America during her lifetime. A contemporary of Dickinson’s, the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, had studied Eastern philosophy, including the Gita, and he had some knowledge of the Vedas. But Dickinson’s awareness came from pure intuition on her part.
Almost Monastic Life
Dickinson lived a contemplative life, an almost monastic life. Some have called her a hermit, reclusive. She was even nicknamed “the nun of Amherst.” She did study the Bible. She had attended church as a child and young adult. But when she chose to cloister her life, she really began to live, to observe nature in birds, flowers, and the people who visited her father’s home.
And she began to contemplate the important questions about the purpose of life and how we should live and worship. Her poem, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,” celebrates the belief held by “the nun of Amherst” that merely by staying home and worshipping, she could go to heaven all along instead of waiting. In this poem the speaker makes God’s creations, not man’s, the instruments of worship—a bird serves the position of the choir director, and fruit trees serve as the roof of her church.
This worshiper wears her metaphorical “wings” instead of a church sanctioned garment. And the most impressive part of this speaker’s “church service” is that God is doing the preaching, delivering a short sermon, which delivers the worshiper more time to meditate instead of merely listening for learned words delivered by an ordinary clergyman.
The Soul After Death
Dickinson was also interested in what happened to the soul after death. Whenever she heard of a death, she was very interested to hear what the person said or did while dying. She heard her dying eight-year-old nephew utter words that she interpreted as indicating that the child saw angels coming to escort his soul.
Her study of death and dying led her to believe in immortality, a topic often referred to as her flood subject. Her poem, “Because I could not stop for Death,” represents her conclusion about dying.
The speaker in this drama portrays death as a gentleman caller who arrives as if to take a lady out for the evening. Notice that the journey symbolizes the idea of one’s life passing before one’s gaze at death. But the final cemetery scene is quickly passed over, and the conflation of time resembles a dream, as the speaker claims she is still riding with the “Horses’ Heads” “toward Eternity.”
Dickinson believed in immortality more surely than the other conventionally religious members of her generation did. She studied, contemplated, and no doubt, her intensity led to meditation on God. Her insights into life and immortality cannot be explained any other way.
Other articles on Dickinson: Emily’s Brain, Emily’s Favorite
