Department of English
Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
"Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –"
(1890)
Emily
Dickinson
(December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886)
Notes
version of
1859
1 alabaster: (Merriam-Webster)
1:
a compact fine-textured usually white and translucent gypsum
often carved into vases and ornaments
2: a hard calcite or aragonite that is translucent and
sometimes banded
5 rafter: any of the parallel beams that support a roof (Merriam-Webster)
9 stolid: having or expressing little or no sensibility: unemotional (Merriam-Webster)
11 sagacity:
sagacious: (Merriam-Webster)
1
obsolete: keen in sense perception
2 a: of keen and farsighted penetration and judgment:
discerning <sagacious judge of character> b:
caused by or indicating acute discernment <sagacious purchase
of stock>
version of
1861
What
was the United States like that Whitman and Dickinson were born into?
Source: Ed
Folsom, Selected American Authors: Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman
WALT WHITMAN is
born in 1819, during America 's worst financial panic to date: a
depression follows. The petition from Missouri for statehood begins a
violent debate over slave and free territories in the West. The University
of Virginia is founded by Thomas Jefferson, who designs its campus and
buildings. A law forbidding the importation of slaves is being enforced,
and slave smuggling becomes big business. The " Savannah ", a sailing ship
with steam power, travels from Georgia to Liverpool in a record 26 days.
Major Stephen Long, leading a mapping expedition out West, spends the
winter at Council Bluffs and names the prairies "the Great American Desert
." Alabama becomes the 22nd state. James Russell Lowell and Herman
Melville are born this same year. The U.S. population is just under 10
million, with population growth favoring the North, where 54% of people
live. In 1820, the Missouri statehood bill is approved (part of Missouri
Compromise), and at the state constitutional convention one of the most
controversial proposals is a provision to outlaw all free blacks and
mulattoes from the state. Daniel Boone dies in Missouri at age 85. James
Monroe is elected President in an electoral college landslide over John
Quincy Adams. First sighting (by a young Connecticut sea captain), south
of Cape Horn, of land that would come to be known as Antarctica . New
England missionaries land and infiltrate Hawaiian Islands . One-third of
novels published in America are written by women. In 1821, Missouri
becomes the 24th state, its population 65,000 (about the population of
Iowa City today). New York constitutional convention, in a radical move,
abolishes property qualifications for right to vote, but excludes free
blacks from the right (and, of course, all women). Waterford (NY) Academy
for Young Ladies is founded, first U.S. women's collegiate-level school.
Santa Fe Trail is opened and traveled. In 1822, Spanish Florida, under
Andrew Jackson's military care, is approved for U.S. territorial status;
Jackson, after making a name for himself as an Indian fighter against the
Seminoles, is nominated for President by Tennessee legislature,
undermining the national party Congressional caucus system—"Jacksonian
democracy" begins to be talked about. A planned slave revolt in South
Carolina , led by Denmark Vesey (a free black), is discovered; 134 blacks
are arrested, and 35 are hanged.
EMILY DICKINSON is born in 1830, the year President Andrew Jackson signs
the Great Removal act, forcibly resettling all Indians west of the
Mississippi; Jackson addresses the nation, "What good man would prefer a
country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our
extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms,
embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry
execute?" The Sac and Fox tribes, over objections of chief Black Hawk,
give up all their lands east of Mississippi River ; Choctaws do the same;
other tribes like Chickasaws follow suit within a year or two. Only the
Cherokees, literate farmers who wanted citizenship, hold out. In 1832,
Black Hawk leads some Sac and Fox back across Mississippi into Illinois
--they are eventually ambushed and massacred in the Michigan Territory ,
and Black Hawk is turned over to U.S. authorities by the Winnebago
Indians. Major Congressional debate is over whether or not the sale of
Western lands should be restricted; Western senators sense a plot by
Eastern business interests to close the West so that cheap labor stays in
the Northeast where factories demand low-paid workers. Joseph Smith
publishes "The Book of Mormon", based on his deciphering of golden plates
he claimed to have found on an upstate New York mountain, detailing the
true church as descended through American Indians who were apparently part
of the lost tribes of Israel (an idea quite common in early 19th-century
America). The next year, 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville arrives in the U.S.
and begins his journey around the country that would result in his massive
book of observations, "Democracy in America ," including his analysis of
“the three races in America ” (black, red, and white). Nat Turner, a
Virginia slave who had visions from God of white spirits and black spirits
engaged in bloody combat, leads a revolt with seven other slaves, killing
his master and his family; with 75 insurgent slaves, he killed more than
50 whites on a two-day journey to Jerusalem, Virginia, where he was hanged
along with sixteen of his companions (many other blacks are killed during
the manhunt for Turner). The Turner Insurrection was the stuff of
nightmares for white Southerners, who passed increasingly severe slave
codes. The song "America" is sung for the first time in Boston on July 4.
Versions of "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –"
Source:
Mitchell, Domhnall. Emily Dickinson:
Monarch of Perception. University of Massachusetts Press, 2000.
261–63. Print.
P#124A
Safe in their alabaster chambers, Untouched by morning, And untouched by noon, Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection, Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.
Light laughs the breeze In her castle above them, Babbles the bee in a stolid ear, Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence: Ah! what
sagacity perished here! |
P#124B
Safe in their Alabaster Chambers – Untouched by morning And untouched by noon – Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection – Rafter of satin, And Roof of stone.
Light laughs the breeze In her Castle above them – Babbles the Bee in a stolid Ear, Pipe the sweet Birds in ignorant cadence – Ah, what
sagacity perished here! |
P#124C
Safe in
their Alabaster Chambers, Untouched by morning – And untouched by noon – Lie the meek members of the Resurrection – Rafter of satin – and Roof of stone –
Worlds scoop their Arcs – And Firmaments – row – Diadems – drop – and Doges – surrender – Soundless as dots – on a Disc of snow – |
P#124D
Springs – shake the Sills – But – the Echoes – stiffen – Hoar – is the Window – and – numb – the Door – Tribes of Eclipse – in Tents of Marble – Staples of Ages – have buckled – there – |
P#124E
Safe in their Alabaster Chambers – Untouched by Morning – And untouched by Noon – Lie the meek members of the Resurrection – Rafter of
Satin – and Roof of Stone!
Worlds scoop their Arcs – And Firmaments – row – Diadems – drop – and Doges – surrender – Soundless as dots – on a Disc of snow – 6–10] Springs – shake the sills – But – the Echoes – stiffen – Hoar – is the window – And – numb – the door – Tribes – of Eclipse – in Tents – of Marble – Staples – of Ages – have buckled – there – · Springs – shake the seals – But the silence – stiffens – Frosts unhook – in the Northern Zones – Icicles – crawl from polar Caverns – Midnight in Marble – Refutes – the Suns – |
Study Questions
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Review Sheet
fascicle –
definition/riddle
poem –
Sample Student Responses to Emily Dickinson's "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –"
Response 1:
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Reference
Link |
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Emily
Dickinson |
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Reference
Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Thomas H. Johnson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1960. Print.
Further
Reading
Martin, Wendy. The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print. (CL 811.4 C178)
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updated January 8, 2012