Emily Dickinson and the Church

Written by Caroline, 12, Hanover, NH, submitted by Steven Glazer, Crossroads Academy

Emily Dickinson was a poet who lived, wrote, and died in Amherst, Massachusetts. Throughout her lifetime Dickinson composed almost 1800 poems, many of which enclosed in letters to her friends and family. Throughout her life, Dickinson varied on the issue of her religion and relationship with God as someone who did not join the Christian religion. However in Dickinson’s lifetime and work, there are many strong connections with the Christian religion.

Childhood: Family Influences on Religion

As a child, Emily Dickinson was born into a religious family. Raised in a Calvinist household, young Dickinson attended religious services with her family weekly at the village meetinghouse, Amherst’s First Congregational Church. Throughout her life and in her poetry, Dickinson expresses many mixed emotions toward God, Heaven, and the Christian religion. When Emily Dickinson turned thirteen, her father gifted her a Bible of her own. She studied the Bible closely and learned an extensive amount about the work of God.

Growing up, Emily Dickinson’s parents were closely affiliated with Amherst College. The college, newly founded in 1821, was founded to educate young men for professions in the Christian ministry. As a result, young Dickinson was surrounded by religion. In the middle of the nineteenth century, one could expect to find the Dickinson house or the Homestead full of ministers. Many of these church officials became Emily Dickinson’s close friends. During Dickinson’s lifetime, the religious landscape of the college expanded to include Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians, and Catholics. Consequently, Dickinson's knowledge and understanding of other religions broadened over the course of her childhood and adult life.

An Era of Religious Change: Dickinson’s Decision

Throughout Dickinson’s teenage years, religious revival spread like a wildfire throughout New England. Emily Dickinson lived in an age defined by the struggle to resurface traditional Christian beliefs. Accordingly, many of Dickson’s friends and family became full members of the Church. Emily Dickinson agonized over her relationship with God. Even so, her decision was to not join the Church. Dickinson did not do this in resistance to God but in order to remain true to herself. At the time Dickinson made her decision, the newly emerging concept of Social Darwinism had reached New England. In her poetry, Dickinson’s struggles with faith and doubt reflect society’s perceptions at the time of God, nature, and humankind. By the time the Church in Amherst had changed locations in 1868, Emily Dickinson had stopped attending services completely.

Influences of the Church on Dickinson’s Poetry

During her lifetime, Dickinson composed almost 1800 poems. The majority of Dickinson’s poems were written in the years 1861 to 1865. These years were also the dates of the American Civil War. These years were Dickison’s most productive and arguably best years of poetry. In these years, Dickinson focused on the themes of death, God, nature, and internal conflict. In Dickinson’s poems about God and the Church, there are many mixed emotions.
Some of Dickinson’s poems express the need for faith and God. In Dickinson’s poem “Faith - is the Pierless Bridge”, Franklin number (FN) 987 and written in 1865, Dickinson expresses a need for God. In this poem, Dickinson writes about faith being a bridge essential for experiencing things in life. This poem confirms Dickinson’s need for faith, regardless of her not officially joining the likes of her family and friends, as a member of the Church.

Of Course - I prayed -
And did God Care?
He cared as much as on the Air
A Bird - had stamped her foot -
And cried “Give Me”
My Reason - Life -
I had not had - but for Yourself -
‘Twere better Charity
To leave me in the Atom’s Tomb -
Merry, and nought, and gay, and numb -
Than this smart Misery.

In other poems, however, Dickinson expresses anger towards God. Dickinson feels most prominently anger, and possibly fear, about the absence of God in her life. In her poem titled, “Of Course – I prayed –” FN 581, written in 1862, Dickinson expresses anger with a lack of presence from God. In the line, “He cared as much as air”, Emily Dickinson conveys her annoyance with the lack of care from God. One of the key components in the Christian faith is to believe in God’s plan and not know for sure that God is there, but have everlasting faith that God is there. To have faith that Jesus is truly the son of God, that he died for the salvation of mankind, and that God is omnipresent in Heaven, watching over each and everyone of us. As this unknown figure said, "Believing is seeing, for when we truly believe in something, our eyes are opened to the possibilities.” It is my opinion however, that Emily Dickinson needed to see in order to believe. In the event that God is not visibly present, Dickinson feels frustration and loses belief in God. Dickinson could also be defined as a pantheist, which, according to the Webster Dictionary, is “a doctrine that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe.” In some sense, Dickinson is a Christian but does not believe that God is this holy figure. I am of the opinion that Dickinson believes in God as the maker of Earth, but not as this powerful, holy, figure. In Dickinson’s poem, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church -”, she does not specifically say that she completely disregards the Sabbath, but chooses to honor it in a different way. From my perspective, Dickinson is a part of the Christian religion, but also a strong believer in the pureness and divinity of nature.

The Christian Church did not only influence the topic of Dickinson’s poetry but also a part of her style. In her poetry, Dickinson is a user of hymn meter, (also known as common meter.) According to Wikipedia, common meter is, “a poetic meter consisting of four lines that alternate between iambic tetrameter (four metrical feet per line) and iambic trimeter (three metrical feet per line), with each foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.” This is a style used in many Church songs and many of Dickinson’s poems use hymn meter as a powerful rhetorical strategy.

In her poetry Dickinson also makes strong connections to the Bible. Scholars have long been impressed with her extensive knowledge of both the Old and New Testament. Dickinson’s father gifted her a Bible at thirteen, and from her poetry it appears she studied it extensively. Many of Dickinson’s poems such as “The Robin is a Gabriel,” “Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,” and hundreds of others, include direct Bible references and references to God.

In her lifetime, Dickinson was not officially not a member of the Christian church, though she still felt a strong connection to God that she expressed in her poetry in various ways. Her style, topics, and Bible references are able to help a reader decode her mixed emotions about God and the church. From her, one can learn the importance of poetry, staying true to yourself, and having faith in one’s values. Though I am certainly not an expert on the issue of Dickinson’s religion, I conclude this essay knowing much more about Dickinson herself and her motives behind her decision.