A presentation in the First Fridays series at The Cedars, McPherson, Kansas.

1. The Pierless Bridge
Emily Dickinson’s Poems of Faith and Doubt
First Fridays Ÿ 3 May 2013
Bruce Clary, McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas

2. Hello. I am Bruce Clary.
Associate Professor of English
McPherson College
• Among other courses, I teach
American Literature
• Dickinson was the subject of
my doctoral dissertation.

3. And this
is Emily
Dickinson.

4. And this
is Emily
Dickinson.

5. And this
is Emily
Dickinson.

6. Today’s Objectives
• Get reacquainted with Dickinson
• Explore some poems
• Experience the power of her
language

7. Quiz time!
What do you already know
about Emily Dickinson?

8. 1. Get out your phones.
Silence them.

9. 1. Get out your phones.
Silence them.
2. Create a new text
message.

10. 1. Get out your phones.
Silence them.
2. Create a new text
message.
3. Do not hit Send until
you are told.

11. 1. Get out your phones.
Silence them.
2. Create a new text
message.
3. Do not hit Send until
you are told.
4. Enter 666509 into the
body of your message.

12. 1859: Darwin

13. The Fascicles

14. 1st Congregational
Church of Amherst
Built in 1868, Dickinson
sneaked out of her house
at night to view the new
church. This was possibly
the last time she left the
grounds of the family
home until her death in
1885.

15. How Dickinson wrote.
How Dickinson Wrote

16. How Dickinson wrote.
How Dickinson Wrote
• Traditional forms –
• No titles
• Variants – sometimes lots of
them

17. How Dickinson wrote.
• Unconventional conventions
• Extreme compression
• Garbled grammar
• Scrambled syntax

18. How Dickinson wrote.
Why ED wrote this way
• She wrote for herself – maybe
• Reader becomes co-creator
• Make language new

19. “On subjects of which we know nothing, or
should I say Beings, we both believe, and
disbelieve a hundred times an Hour, which keeps
Believing nimble.”
—1882 letter to Otis Phillips Lord

20. Those – dying then,
Knew where they went –
They went to God’s Right Hand –
That Hand is amputated now
And God cannot be found –
The abdication of Belief
Makes the Behavior small –
Better an ignis fatuus
Than no illume at all –

21. Faith – is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not –
Too slender for the eye
It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With arms of steel at either side –
It joins – behind the Vail
To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.

22. Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –
Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –
I just wear my Wings –
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton – sings.
God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I'm going, all along.

23. This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond –
Invisible, as Music –
But positive, as Sound –
It beckons, and it baffles –
Philosophy – don't know –
And through a Riddle, at the last –
Sagacity, must go –
To guess it, puzzles scholars –
To gain it, Men have borne
Contempt of Generations
And Crucifixion, shown –

24. Faith slips – and laughs, and rallies –
Blushes, if any see –
Plucks at a twig of Evidence –
And asks a Vane, the way –
Much Gesture, from the Pulpit –
Strong Hallelujahs roll –
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul –

25. Of God we ask one favor,
That we may be forgiven –
For what, he is presumed to know –
The Crime, from us, is hidden –
Immured the whole of Life
Within a magic Prison
We reprimand the Happiness
That too competes with Heaven.

26. I know that He exists.
Somewhere – in Silence –
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.
'Tis an instant's play.
'Tis a fond Ambush –
Just to make Bliss
Earn her own surprise!

27. But – should the play
Prove piercing earnest –
Should the glee – glaze
In Death's – stiff – stare –
Would not the fun
Look too expensive!
Would not the jest –
Have crawled too far

28. “Faith” is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see –
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.

29. The Brain – is wider than the Sky –
For – put them side by side –
The one the other will contain
With ease – and You – beside
The Brain is deeper than the sea –
For – hold them – Blue to Blue –
The one the other will absorb –
As Sponges – Buckets – do –
The Brain is just the weight of God –
For – Heft them – Pound for Pound –
And they will differ – if they do –
As Syllable from Sound –

30. bwc