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Date:         Thu, 2 Apr 1998 06:43:48 -0600
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From: Tim Morris <tmorris@UTARLG.UTA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: #216:irony (fwd)
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 19:43:33 -0500 (EST)
From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>

Dear Vibeke:

I hope others respond to your questions.  Dickinson is so layered in her work
that four or five (or more) interpretations could be valid.  One reading is
that the dead are totally removed from life, complete with all the sensory
pleasures, etc.  Another reading could be that the "meek members" are waiting
for resurrection but will never attain it; they simply lie in the earth
waiting, absurdly.  (Yes, they are close to being members of a club--devout
Christians who believe.)  Others read this as a commentary on "high society"
in Dickinson's day, the elected few in New England who consider themselves as
elect members of a faithful Christian group whose faith will send them
straight to heaven and a "better place."  That's a "certain club." If you can
get a copy of Martha Nell Smith's _Rowing in Eden:  Rereading Emily Dickinson_
you will find, in addition to very many other excellent things, a couple of
pages devoted to this poem. Smith notes the absurdity of the "coffin" or
resting place with its rafters of satin and roof of stone.  Is this safe? or a
"joke" by Dickinson, Smith asks.  Smith also calls attention to the word "lie"
in the fourth line of the first stanza noting that it can mean a falsehood as
well as reclining, and suggests that Dickinson is quite capable of playing
with such meanings.

There is certainly irony in the poem, in ways that you have noted and in some
ways that I suggest.  We must remember that Dickinson liked to approach things
with a slant and, often, buried meanings deep in her text, and, I'm sure she
hoped that many interpretations would be available to readers.

Good luck, and, again, I hope others answer.  I'm a kind of an advanced
amateur with respect to Dickinson's work.

Louis Forsdale