“Not in this World to see his face–” (F435A, J418)

Not in this World to see his
face –
Sounds long – until I read the
place
Where this – is said to be
But just the Primer – to a life –
Unopened – rare – Opon the Shelf –
Clasped yet – to Him – and me –

And yet – My Primer suits me
so
I would not choose – a Book
to know
Than that – be sweeter wise –
Might some one else – so
learned – be –
And leave me – just my
A – B – C –
Himself – could have the
Skies –

Link to EDA manuscript. Originally in Packet XXXII, Mixed Fascicles, ca. 1862. First published in Poems (1890), 132. Courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

This poem is an example of the common particular meter with six line stanzas of 886886 syllables, rhyming aabccb. In some ways, it is, metrically speaking, the inverse of the short meter, discussed in relation to the previous poem. Here the longer stanza allows for a more meditative tone, but as the longer lines resolve into a shorter 3rd and 6th lines, they give the stanza a truncated feeling.

And the tone and subject matter here also seem like the inverse of the awe and enchantment expressed at the end of “A bird came down the Walk – “. This is a poem about renouncing the consolation offered by a doctrine of reward in the afterlife. If the speaker cannot see the face of a beloved, or of God, in this world (a sign of salvation), then in the first stanza she takes comfort in the “Primer” or book (Bible) that teaches her to wait for Heaven. But she rejects this idea in the second stanza for the doctrine contained in a different, less lofty book, “My Primer,” a manual that teaches children to read and stands for an earthly life with “just my A ­– B – C –,” an allusion to the rudiments of her writing. The child-like persona works well to partly disguise Dickinson’s defiance and heresy, and it is well-served by a stanza structure that starts big but narrows down.

Other poems that develop the idea of absence/presence through the beloved’s face are “What would I give to see his face?” (F266), “I live with Him – I see His face –” (F698).

 

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