Emily Dickinson, "Spring is the Period" (844)

Hi all --

Below I've written a few remarks on Dickinson's "Spring is the Period." As you could probably tell from the last post, I'm not exactly in the mood for summer yet. (I didn't realize summer could be this... windy.) And when I saw Dickinson's short poem on spring, I felt for a second that spring really was the "Period / Express from God." The next second, I remembered that the wind was aggravating me a few weeks ago too.

I do hope you enjoy my attempt to interpret the poem. Before we go into that, I'd like to talk about the news, although it is extremely grim.

First thing we need to mention are the deportations and removals. This started by throwing people into concentration camps without due process. Now people are being removed and thrown into war zones suffering famine. The courts are threatening contempt because, again, of a complete lack of due process. I believe any discussion of the news has to start here because we need to remind ourselves and certainly many other Americans that everyone has a right to a defense. That's due process. The government is not supposed to declare you "illegal," fail to properly check its own documentation, not bother filing any charges, prevent you from making a case for yourself, and instead jail and remove you.

Of course, charges filed against a Congresswoman who was conducting an inspection of an ICE facility of dubious legality are extremely bad. If you can hit a member of Congress with charges for doing the oversight that is their job, you can charge anyone with anything. There are no checks and balances if you successfully intimidate the other branches of government.

Also, those in charge not only lack respect for due process, but publicly disavow any knowledge of habeas corpus. I actually think Secretary Noem does know what habeas corpus is, that the government can't detain whomever it wants whenever, but planned on saying that it is a power given to the President for the sake of the cameras. Our media usually rewards lying if you do it with ease and confidence. She was definitely shocked she got talked over by someone with actual knowledge:

Still, things are not good. It's one thing for Senators to make officials doing awful, illegal things look bad. But Congress is failing us to an incredible degree. I don't see any real pushback against the President and those working for him. The GOP proposed budget is awful because Senate Democrats greenlit reconciliation when they had leverage. Congress yesterday gave a seal of approval to the President's crypto dealings. And I haven't said a thing about the famine and killing in Palestine, in part because it is too ghastly to comprehend how horrible U.S. foreign policy currently is. I only hope a ceasefire happens ASAP and that food and aid are delivered immediately.

Emily Dickinson, "Spring is the Period" (844)

This poem is wild. Not "spring is lovely," not "a time of beauteous rebirth," not "gone the dark days of winter." None of these will do. Poets prior to Dickinson exhausted such comments. Here's Thomas Nashe, writing in the 16th century:

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing...

Dickinson does not bother with anything like this. She goes metal, as the kids say: "Spring is the Period / Express from God." There is a season God willed, and it is Spring itself.

Some nod their heads. Spring is the heart of the liturgical calendar. Visible rebirth lends itself to hope; seasonal cycles hint at greater orders. With Easter in mind, no less than Death is conquered. I don't know Dickinson is writing for such an audience. They don't need an expression of faith, as spring already speaks.

Dickinson needs to indicate what is at stake for everyone else. And I think what she wants to draw our attention to is a hidden darkness. One way to see it involves dwelling on two themes. One concerns movement, both that of God and everything else. The other centers on one word: "interview."

Spring is the Period (844)
Emily Dickinson
  
Spring is the Period
Express from God.
Among the other seasons
Himself abide,

But during March and April
None stir abroad
Without a cordial interview
With God.

With regard to movement, note that God sent spring to us. It is "Express from God," a "Period" that is not only a span of time but an end. The words are very precise in this brief lyric. Dickinson wants you to think about how God gives a limited amount of life. You will have your days on Earth and they will be numbered. A portion of those days will be glorious, a direct reflection of the Creator. For a parallel logic, see Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium." That presents a vision of the afterlife more creepy than cordial, but I would say the sentiment is the same. Here is the last stanza in full:

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

You can object that Dickinson and Yeats are not talking about the same thing at all. Dickinson speaks of a season which will end. God puts nature into motion and it will blossom and perish. Yeats speaks of a realm "out of nature" and an artificial bird made of "hammered gold and gold enamelling." But I am telling you to look at the result. The only difference is that in one scenario, the birds in the season "[e]xpress from God" perish. In the other, they do what they do in spring eternally.

In other seasons, God is merely present: "Among the other seasons / Himself abide." Other seasons do not speak to God's glory as spring does. Part of this is the movement of everything else which God initiated: "None stir abroad." The season "[e]xpress from God" results in everything everywhere moving. It sounds and is immense, but again, there is a darkness at play. You can hear it in "None stir abroad." Yes, it will be followed by "cordial interview," but those three words alone are a forbidding command. You will not move without permission, even though a season was granted unto you.

So what is the nature of the "cordial interview?" It is such an innocent phrase and I am grateful for Philosophy Club bringing me back to Spinoza and beatitude and the end of life. The "cordial interview" is nothing less than seeing God face-to-face. It is the summum bonum. It is such a quiet, tucked away reference that you could just breeze past it (no pun intended). If you accept spring as being in the prime of your years, you must accept that the rest of life is death in one way or another. Here Dickinson's poem does break sharply with Yeats' above, because an interview with God in this life implies no afterlife. The glory we get comes at a price we pay. There may be a way around this, but it won't come from endlessly singing the praise of spring. Other sorts of cordial interviews are possible.