Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church

     Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson were two of America’s most intriguing poets. They were both drawn to the transcendentalist movement which taught “unison of creation, the righteousness of humanity, and the preeminence of insight over logic and reason” (Woodberry 113). This movement also taught them to reject “religious authority” (Sherwood 66). By this declination of authority, they were able to express their individuality. It is through their acceptance of this individuality that will illustrate their ambiguities in their faith in God.

Dickinson's bout with religious turmoil is quite evident in poem 1545; The Bible is an antique Volume-, in which she seems to be attacking the Puritan radicals such as Jonathan Edward. This poem gives almost a complete overview of the Bible, speaking of Eden, Satan, Judas, David, and also Sin. This poem lets us see why and also how this strict religious upbringing may have pushed her to become the `old spinster' as some may call her, or the woman with the disease of agoraphobia.

Emily Dickinson was an exceptional writer through the mid-late 1800’s. She never published any of her writings and it wasn’t until after her death that they were even discovered. The complexity of understanding her poems is made prevalent because of the fact that she, the author, cannot expound on what her writing meant. This causes others to have to speculate and decide for themselves the meaning of any of her poems. There are several ways that people can interpret Emily Dickinson’s poems; readers often give their opinion on which of her poems present human understanding as something boundless and unlimited or something small and limited, and people always speculate Dickinson’s view of the individual self.

“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman is the recollection of a speaker that attended an astronomer’s lecture only to be bored and leaves the room to enjoy the stars without scientific analyzation hindering their natural beauty. On the other hand, “324” by Emily Dickinson demonstrates the role of nature in the speaker’s personal connection to religion and God instead of attending Church and sermons. Although their topics seem so unlike, the poetic devices within them have both similarities and differences. Whitman’s and Dickinson’s poems bear many differences, including structure, meter, and rhyme, while remaining alike in their use of imagery to convey like attitudes towards traditionalism and nature.

Approaching Emily Dickinson’s poetry as one large body of work can be an intimidating and overwhelming task. There are obvious themes and images that recur throughout, but with such variation that seeking out any sense of intention or order can feel impossible. When the poems are viewed in the groupings Dickinson gave many of them, however, possible structures are easier to find. In Fascicle 17, for instance, Dickinson embarks upon a journey toward confidence in her own little world. She begins the fascicle writing about her fear of the natural universe, but invokes the unknowable and religious as a means of overcoming that fear throughout her life and ends with a contextualization of herself within

Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul Selects her Own Society” presents herself as absolute and her rights as unchallengeable. The poem puts forward the idea of “friendship or love” which means choosing a significant person and excluding other people. Dickinson reveals that she was shutting people from her life, but because it had been so long, they are no longer interested in taking part of her life. Dickinson’s actions imply that the ability to create and construct a world for oneself, such as choosing your own actions, provides an example of a god-like achievement. Overall, Dickson asserts the importance of “the Self” theme which is shown my just speaking and writing as a ratification of the will to explore and express “the Self” to others.

The poem begins with the poet noticing the beauty around her, the fall colors as the sun sets “Their leaves and fruits seemed painted, but was true, / Of green, of red, of yellow, mixed hue;” (5-6). The poet immediately relates the effects of nature’s beauty to her own spiritual beliefs. She wonders that if nature here on Earth is so magnificent, then Heaven must be more wonderful than ever imagined. She then views a stately oak tree and

In “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church” Emily Dickinson utilizes metaphors to illustrate how she observes her worship experience. She accomplishes this task using words or phrases to represent elements in her environment that convey to the reader where she worships, how she worships, and her belief in worship. Emily Dickinson views the Sabbath, a day during the week that a religious person would attend a worship service, by staying home. This is shown in the first lines of her poem, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church- / I keep it staying Home” (Dickinson 95), which clearly identifies where she worships.

The subject of this poem is the speaker and his/her life in the hands of The Owner. The point that the author is trying to make is that life is like a loaded gun, in that it has great potential, but cannot accomplish anything without the help of a master’s hand. The poem is very descriptive as to what is accomplished when the master takes control. I like this poem because I can relate it to the life of a Christian in the hands of God. The metaphors that Dickinson uses can be interpreted in different ways according to one’s beliefs, but I can definitely see religious connotations within this text. For example, The Owner can be seen as God, and in the fourth stanza the speaker states,

Religious freedom is the United States first American freedom. It is essential to an individual’s spiritual life and their very own salvation. It is the freedom to share one’s faith and beliefs in their own way. Emily Dickinson’s poem “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,” expresses her own religious beliefs. The poem is a rejection of traditional religious behavior that takes place during her time. She sees religion as a private matter for the individual. The poem indicates that one does not have to attend church in accordance with society to show one’s faith and beliefs. She writes, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church - / I keep it, staying at Home -.” Dickinson compares her home as a place to worship. The feeling one has to conform

Dickinson is talking about giving away her labor, all of her hard work and efforts she has put into life. She found her accomplishments and her daily life to be meaningless. Adding to the overall melancholy tone of the poem, Dickinson claims that she is even giving away her leisure; she does not find happiness in anything anymore, not even in relaxation or hobbies. Some might argue that by stating that she is giving away her labors and leisures, Dickinson is speaking in an animated way; after all, she is dying, and that is what she wants. Be that as it may, Dickinson still has a dark, dejected tone in regards to

While much of Emily Dickinson's poetry has been described as sad or morose, the poetess did use humor and irony in many of her poems. This essay will address the humor and/ or irony found in five of Dickinson's poems: "Faith" is a Fine Invention, I'm Nobody! Who are you?, Some keep the Sabbath Going to Church and Success Is Counted Sweetest. The attempt will be made to show how Dickinson used humor and / or irony for the dual purposes of comic relief and to stress an idea or conclusion about her life and environment expressed by the poetess in the respective poem. The most humorous or ironic are some of the shorter poems, such as the four lined stanzas of "Faith" is a Fine Invention and

Two of Dickinson’s universal techniques are metaphor and the fresh application of language; both techniques result in powerful images, and can be seen in two of her poems that focus on nature themes, “ A Bird came down the Walk” and “narrow Fellow.” She closes the poem, “ A Bird” with a stanza equating flight through the air with movement through water,

First, she uses dashes that separate the lines in the poem. The dashes are there to cause readers to pause and slowly read the poem. The next method that is used is the rhyme scheme, which is an ABCB pattern. The rhyme scheme is very important in the fact that it still slows the reading of the poem down, while still flowing smoothly. Also, Dickinson uses strange capitalization throughout the poem. The capitalization is purposely in specific words to make readers stop and think about why the words are capitalized, making the readers slow down while

At first Glance, “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” by Emily Dickinson is puzzling, even meaningless. However, upon further analysis it is clear that the poet has made several deliberate choices to assist the reader in discerning the poems meaning. Her deployment of poetic devices correlates to the narrative she is writing, allowing the reader to deeply perceive the poems message. Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” provides commentary on an individual’s ability to decide who can enter the most intimate parts of her life, which the reader can empathize with through figurative language, repetitive sounds, and enjambment.