Close and Slow

A Weekly Appreciation of Poetry Pt.6

**Trigger warning: this poem and analysis contain references to pain, trauma, denial and recovery**

Many of us feel a bit inadequate when it comes to reading poetry, perhaps suspecting that there is some higher learning or personal initiation required in order to appreciate verse. ‘Close and Slow’ is a new regular feature here on ‘The Sounding Board’ providing some pointers as to how to read and enjoy poetry, taking an individual poem for each post and highlighting some ways in which it can be read. I trust that this feature might open poetry to those keen to read it but a little overwhelmed and showcase some of the amazing work that is out there to be discovered. Previous editions of ‘Close and Slow’ can be read here.

Poem 599 by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is widely regarded as one of America’s most important poets. Prolific in her output but largely unpublished in her lifetime, Dickinson’s work embodies beguiling and disarming simplicity married to philosophical and social sophistication. Many of her poems are very brief in terms of word and line count, but they carry a kind of atomic power and impact when allowed to sink into our consciousness. In our own era her most famous poems are arguably ‘Because I could not stop for death’ (Poem 479) and ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’ (Poem 314).

In this week’s Close and Slow we are taking time with Poem 599 which we might also title ‘There is a pain so utter’. Last week we took a break from our normal pattern for approaching a poem but return to it again in order to understand and appreciate this work. The four steps for understanding poetry that I am insisting on in these posts are:

1. Listen to the voice of the poem

2. Put form first

3. Identify clear themes

4. Piece it all together

Listen to the voice of the poem

Repeated listening and reading are completely indispensable when it comes to understanding and enjoying poetry. Poetry is not a headline which gives notice of things to follow, it is not a telegram or social media post which is only concern with the dissemination of information. Instead, poetry is a carefully worked piece of writing that demands its own space and context in order to communicate. Many abandon poetry as ‘difficult’, ‘highbrow’ or ‘inaccessible’ precisely because we have not taken enough time to let the poem speak to us in its own language.

When I worked in adminstration in the 1990s, colleagues would occasionally bring in a packet of photographs - perhaps from their holiday or a family wedding. Seated around the coffee break table, I observed that there were two types of people when it came to looking at the pictures. There were people like me who scanned the photo to see who was in it and where they were, and others who deliberated over the scene - asking questions and making their own observations. I always felt that they had a better experience of looking at the pictures, and they certainly made the person sharing the photos feel more valued! When it comes to poetry, it is vital that we assume that second posture, not passing the piece on too quickly or hurrying to the next scene, but dignifying the work of the poet and deliberating over their words.

You can do this via ‘Close and Slow’ by simply refusing to scroll beyond the photo of the poem until you have taken sufficient time with it, you can print the poem and read it there, or you can invest in a poetry book which makes you pause with the page until you get the poem. However you work it, listen to the voice of the poem as your main activity in coming to terms with it.

Put form first

Form is the how of a poem’s existence, and it often logically leads to the what of the poem’s meaning. Any skilled poet will be deliberate and intentional in the form they adopt to communicate sentiment, memory, persona and fact. Form is not the preserve of literary critics or literature students, and understanding some basic principles of how poetry speaks will greatly aid us.

In Dickinson’s poem, form is important and, as we shall see later, is a vehicle for meaning every bit as much as the words she uses. We begin by looking at the rhyme scheme of the poem:

The first thing that we can say about the rhyme scheme of Poem 599 is that it is regular. Using the letter annotations above, it can be observed that Dickinson uses an ABCBDEFE pattern. We can also note that there is really only half rhyme in the poem - ‘up’ is matched with ‘step’, ‘swoon’ is matched with ‘bone’. This creates a simultaneous sense of congruity and incongruity. The words are near enough in their final consonants to create an association but far enough away to give us a slight sense of dislocation. This works for the message of the poem, as the idea of comparison and contrast will be important to our proper understanding of Dickinson’s concerns.

We can also take note of the meter or rhythm of the poem:

The numbers in the left margin give a count of the feet per line that poem uses. This is a little like counting beats per bar and allows us to properly annotate rhythm, even when we are not hearing the poem aloud. What emerges is a pattern of 7686 - or to use more technical language, hexameter, heptameter, octameter, hexameter. There can be no doubt that this formal element is intentional on Dickinson’s part, and the gliding meter of the poem will be used to powerfully portray the feelings that she wishes to express. Keen readers of the poem (or perhaps more accurately, listeners to the poem) will make a quick association with this format - that of the hymn. The Poetry Foundation observe that this is a common feature of Dickinson’s work, stating that,

Her poems followed both the cadence and the rhythm of the hymn form she adopted. This form was fertile ground for her poetic exploration. Through its faithful predictability, she could play content off against form.

Identify clear themes

Having spent a short while considering the ‘form’ of the poem, we are now ready to explore its themes. As with many of Dickinson’s pieces, the theme is plainly stated rather than concealed with elaborate imagery. Many of her poems carry resonances of proverbs or aphorisms, often defining an aspect of human existence. The theme here is pain, and more precisely how we process all-consuming pain. One main image is used for this kind of experience, an ‘abyss’ that ‘swallows substance up’. Such pain is ‘utter’ a word loaded with incredible power and pathos, a pain which would not naturally be accommodated by the one suffering it - were it not for the reality of denial.

Denial, in Dickinson’s hands, becomes a kind of ‘trance’ which enables the person in pain to remain functional in the world. Memories may be conflicted and debilitatingly difficult, but the ‘Trance’ means that the sufferer can ‘step/Around - across - upon it’. The person traumatised by such pain finds themself in a kind of ‘swoon’ which allows them to continue without apparent injury, where careful and conscious itemising of what has endured could be their undoing.

As we will see below, this experience is common to many of us, and Dickinson uses serious literary craft to portray it. The subject matter is of ‘utter’ and ‘Abyss’ like pain, an all consuming sense of suffering, but all of it is carried on the ‘trance’ of a meter which is jaunty and hymn-like in its qualities. Using this technique, the poet brings us into the actual experience of denial, as well as describing it for us. This is the genius of great poetry.

Piece it all together

Poem 599 invites us to examine something that, ironically, we might wilfully avoid - the reality of painful experience that could consume us. By highlighting the ‘Trance’ Dickinson is actually slowing us down to acknowledge the ways in which we subconsciously cope with loss and other forms of trauma. The skipping meter of the poem reminds us of the way our lives continue ‘Around - across - upon’ the pain that living in our world exposes us to. Reading the poem might lead us to probe scars and wounds afresh, all the while aware that the rhythm of living in the world will force us onwards eventually.

From a personal and pastoral point of view, this poem is important and compassionate. It allows us to process the heavy things we carry while we affect a lightness of step in the world, the ways in which coping can mask the unbearable realities that are part of our past and our present. With its eight-line simplicity, Dickinson’s poem penetrates the human psyche and shows us who we are and how we really are in the wake of trouble and difficulty.

The poem also invites us to scrutinise the skipping gait of others around us. Is the ‘Trance’ their friend as well? What pain lies beneath the ‘keep on keeping on’ mentality of loved ones, friends, colleagues and neighbours? Inviting one another into the poem might just invite us into each other’s lives and losses that we live ‘Around - across - upon’ each and every day as we make our way through the world.