Or, What elements of mysticism do you find in Dickinson’s poetry? Elaborate on your points.
Answer: Emily Dickinson is obviously a mystic poet. The themes that a mystic poet deals with are those of God, soul, immortality, and union of the human soul with the Divine. Emily Dickinson deals with all those themes in a good number of her poems. Her position as a mystic poet is based on her treatment of the themes relating to those metaphysical entities. But before we discuss the nature of her mysticism, we should have some terms of reference to determine the degree of her mysticism. Or, in other words, we should define mysticism, and in the light of that definition, we should discuss Dickinson as a mystic poet.
Mysticism means a spiritual quest for union with the Divine. But mysticism has been practiced in different forms in different religions. In Hinduism, it means absorption of the soul in the All. Buddism emphasizes meditation as a means of moving toward Nirvana. In Islam, it denotes a spiritual endeavor to have union with the Divine.
In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary mysticism is defined in the following terms: “The belief that knowledge of God and real truth can be found through prayer and meditation, rather than through reason and the senses.” But many thinkers look upon mysticism in a different way. They regard mysticism as a temper and a mood, rather than any systematic philosophy.
Her views of God are expressed in a good number of poems. She often talks about divine love in terms of sexual love; it is difficult from such reading to say whether the object of love is God or some earthly being. She believes with all mystics, past and present, that the entire universe overflows with love and beauty, and that this love and beauty are but a reflection of the Divine whose attributes they are. Divine love is the culmination of all spiritual attainments, and marriage with Christ is the only means of attaining eternity and immortality.
Dickinson is a mystic poet with her views on soul, soul’s relation with God, and death as a gateway to union with God.
Some of the poems that especially mark her mystic outlook may be referred to here. In “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed”, she used the symbol of a vine that has never been brewed, in order to achieve the stature of an immensely big celestial being to whom even the sun is a lamp-post. Her stature is then admired by the seraphs and saints. This aspiration to rise to the gigantic spiritual stature sounds like one of her notes of mysticism.
Her attitude to death is mystical. Dickinson meditates on death in many of her poems. In all cases, her account of death is characterized by deep psychological insight and imaginative power. She believes that immortality of the soul can be achieved through dissolution, decay, and death of the body. Death is the gateway to the Divine and to immortality, so death should be welcomed rather than shunned. She muses on death and watches its last onslaught on human life and its possible consequences. She records her observations with the veracity of a great artist. But that is not always the case. Sometimes she regards death as the end of all earthly things, and the consequence of death is the merging of the elements of the human body with the elements of Nature. On certain occasions, she is overwhelmed by the frightful aspect of death. She says-
Dickinson’s attitude toward Nature is mystical. She seems to indicate that the external aspects of Nature do not constitute the knowledge of Nature’s mysteries. She has dealt with the natural objects like the sun and other celestial bodies, the seasons, especially spring and summer, and the birds and the insects as forming part of Nature. In the poem “My Cocoon Tightens, Colours Tease”, we have a wonderfully poetic treatment of a chrysalis just before bursting open its cocoon and taking the shape of a butterfly. This is a phenomenon taking place in the bosom of Nature. The poet invests the phenomena with a mystic aura and indicates the possible mysterious handling of all affairs, great and small, by the Divine creator. The chrysalis feels that its cocoon tightens, and the covering of the cocoon begins to tear open. It feels the need for air, and its wings are beginning to have power. It begins to realize the power of a butterfly which has to fly over the majestic meadows, and in the vast expanse of the sky. It is timid at the prospect of having to undertake such a difficult task and is likely to make many blunders. But it, at last, takes the divine clue, overcomes the inhibition, and becomes a full butterfly. The minute observation of this phenomenon in Nature highlights Dickinson’s attitude to Nature and her interest in her mysteries.
In some of her poems, Dickinson asserts her firm faith in the immortality of the soul. “Two lengths have every day” logically argues that the identity of the soul cannot be lost because it is immortal.
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