Emily Dickinson: Her infamous disbelief in god
Citing R.W. Franklin's 1999 edition of The poems of Emily Dickinson, this page explores Emily's religious beliefs and attempts to uncover her beliefs in God in relation to gender and nature embedded in society and the stratosphere of Amherst given the political climate of her life. Does Emily believe in a God? Or does she reject religious tropes all together? Does she feel left out of something that she cannot see? Since nature is tangible, is nature (or rather the natural world), Emily's own personal religion?
poem #803
Nature and God - I neither knew
Yet Both so well knew Me
They startled, like Executors
Of my identity -
Yet Neither told - that I could learn -
My Secret as secure
As Herschel's private interest
Or Mercury's Affair -
Poem #748
God gave a Loaf to every Bird -
But just a Crumb - to Me -
I dare not eat it - tho' I starve -
My poignant luxury -
To own it - touch it -
Prove that feat - that made the pellet mine -
Too happy - for my Sparrow's chance -
For Ampler Coverting -
It might be Famine - all around -
I could not miss an Ear -
Such Plenty smiles upon my Board -
My Garner shows so fair -
I wonder how the Rich - may feel -
An Indiaman - An Earl -
I deem that I - with but a Crumb -
Am Sovereign of them all -
poem #202
"Faith" is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see -
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency