Poem #705
In order to diligently dissect this poem, I think it’s always best to look at the historical context of the date in which it was written; in this case, the poem was written in 1863; a year in the midst of both her most prolific writing period, and at the height of the Civil War, which (arguably) drastically impacted her writing. This poem was also written following a significant falling out with one of Emily’s dearest friends, Samuel Bowles, which lasted eleven years. By this time, Emily would be 33 years old, which would be considered somewhat middle aged in 19th century Amherst; although she never wanted to marry it’s interesting to consider the prospect of Emily feeling inadequate to do so at the time of her writing this poem.The first four lines of the poem, prescribes Emily as a “Dowerless Girl”; since she is not married, she claims no legal rights to any property, a law that was in the process of being reformed through the Married Women’s Property Acts: a feminist political movement of the mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. “What right have I - to be a Bride -”, Emily reclaims her single stature while in her mid 30’s; it remains unclear to me whether or nor she is bothered by this however; the line, “No one to teach me that new Grace” insinuates a somewhat depressive connotation to her lack of a husband, yet Emily is renowned for being particularly discouraged by the idea of marriage.I would argue that the following section expresses a certain disdain for dressing a certain way for anyone other than one’s self. “Me to adorn” insinuates the importance of dressing for the self instead of a husband; in the line “Trinket - to make Me beautiful”, ‘Me’ is capitalized, likely to indicate the importance of the self. Emily is poking fun at womens whose sole purpose is to wear luxurious fabrics and jewels to be objectified by their husbands, to wear beautiful clothing not because they want to, but because their husbands want them to look a certain way. The second section seems to answer the first one; Why would she want to be a bride when she can do all of these things for herself?This question persists in the third section of the poem with the opening lines “Fingers - to Frame - My Round Hair”. In this section, Emily essentially lists the reasons why it should sound undesirable to be both a woman and a wife to be married; in the first line Emily is likely speaking of the process in which women curled their hair during this time period using hot tongs, which was both a dangerous and daunting task. Since we only have the one image of Emily, it is unclear whether or not she ever did this herself, but it is evident in photographs of Sue and her sister Lavinia that they employed this trick to get the perfect “Frame” for their face. The line “Skill - to hold my Brow like an Earl”, alludes to the dignified and ‘Graceful’ stature women must postulate themselves within society; despite all that is required of them in specified spousal duties. The following lines follow this same pattern; “Plead - like a Whippowil - '' is referring to a small songbird commonly found in the Northeast United States; they are onomatopoeically named after their song, but less commonly seen because of their camouflage. This could be why Emily is referencing this bird in particular; since they are heard by others and not seen; somewhat like how Emily views spousal relationship dynamics. The line “Prove - like a Pearl -”, might be a biblical reference as pearls typically represent perfection in biblical texts– which is obviously impossibly difficult to achieve; a woman has to ‘prove’ herself to the man; and only then can she be ‘granted’ his hand in marriage, (she also has to somehow, in spite of all of that, win the man over with her ‘character’, if that supposed ‘character’ hasn't already been completely washed away).Finally, in the last section, Emily describes herself again: “Fashion My Spirit quaint - white -”; by definition, quaint literally means “attractively unusual or old fashioned”. Since Emily famously wore a white gown pretty much every day, (especially during this time because 1863 is at the height of her reclusivity), is she referring to herself in the white gown? Or is she referring to how dated and archaic white wedding gowns are as a symbol of purity and virginity; is she clueing us in to the fact that she is not a virgin? Is the line “Quick - like a Liquor -” suggesting how swiftly something like purity can be tainted? In the line “Bring Me my best Pride -” and in following lines, she suggests that her own highly valued opinion of herself, (the ‘proud’ in second from the bottom), is too excessive for any suggested ‘Pride’ she may gain from any respectable man that she would join in marriage; “Meek - let it be - too proud - for Pride -”. The last line that reads, “Baptized - this day - A Bride - “, brings this theme of anti-marriage, anti-religion into fruition– just like Emily will never believe or embrace the Christian faith like her family and peers, she will never embrace a husband in marriage because she simply does not believe in the principality of either thing.