Closed Sunflower
Society for me my misery Since Gift of Thee -
Emily Dickinson 1534(TJ)
Going to pick out my next poem, I looked in the back of the TJ edition where every poem is listed by subject. When I look for my next poem to illustrate I try to get something that is on par with what I am feeling at the moment. The subject word I was looking for was depression. If I know Emily I know she at some point in her life has felt depressed and wrote about it. But the word, depression, was not listed. Doesn’t mean she was not depressed just means there was another word for it, it was misery.
A simple two lined poem has my head spinning. First off the two words, “misery” and “Gift”, are completely opposite of each other, how can these be in the same short little two lined poem. I digress, let's dissect this little baby. You see why I do this, I myself just thinking about this poem, am coming out of my depression.
There are three explanations for this poem. I totally understand, “Society for me my misery”, but the last line, “Since Gift of Thee-” what gift and who is thee?
Could it be someone she is in love with but can’t be with in society, possibly her love affair with Susan. So society becomes her misery, and Susan the gift.
Could it be “Thee” is society, the bubble it puts us in, whether that be marriage, school, job, church, house, the all consuming rat race that causes misery.
Or could it be “Gift of Thee-” is her poetry, her love of doing poetry is her gift. Doing anything outside of her talent and her doing what she loves to do, is MISERY.
You decide.
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Closed Sunflower "Misery"
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