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This Is My Letter to the World

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This Is My Letter to the World Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com This is my letter to the world attempts to reach out to others the way he or she knows how: POEM TEXT via writing. At the same time, however, perhaps the speaker has been so 1 This is my letter to the World consumed with receiving and translating the "News that 2 That never wrote to Me — Nature told" that he or she has left little time or space for 3 The simple News that Nature told actual people. Writing, the poem thus seems to suggest, is ironically at once a tool of communication and a deeply 4 With tender Majesty isolating endeavor. 5 Her Message is committed Though readers shouldn't necessarily take the speaker of this 6 To Hands I cannot see — poem to be Dickinson herself, the context of the poet's life 7 For love of Her — Sweet — countrymen could be helpful here: Dickinson was famously reclusive and did not receive much recognition for her work during her lifetime. 8 Judge tenderly — of Me Dickinson was also intensely preoccupied with her own mortality. This poem, then, can perhaps be considered a contemplation of legacy—as Dickinson reaching out to the SUMMARY world in the hopes of being remembered fondly through her poetry, despite having essentially walled herself off from the This is my message to the world, even though the world never rest of society at large. sent me any messages. My message contains the basic facts that nature told me with tenderness and greatness. Where this theme appears in the poem: Nature’s news is carried in invisible hands. If you love nature, • Lines 1-8 fellow citizens, don’t judge me harshly. THE PURPOSE OF POETRY THEMES Closely related to the poem's theme of isolation is its preoccupation with writing, which, as previously LONELINESS AND ISOLATION noted, is perhaps the cause of the speaker's isolation in the first place. Indeed, it's possible to interpret the poem as a On one level, this is a poem reflecting on the pain of meditation on the construction and purpose of poetry. The isolation and affirming the human desire for speaker presents his or her "letter"—which can be taken as a connection. The speaker has written a "letter" addressed to the symbol for poetry—as a literal transcription of "the simple "World," which here can be read as everyone and everything News that Nature" told the speaker, suggesting that poetry is a apart from the speaker: it represents human life and way to communicate some meaningful insight about the world community, even civilization itself. Yet though the speaker to other people. attempts to communicate with the "World" in writing, this World has failed—intentionally or simply through neglect—to In this formulation, note how the speaker presents him or extend this same courtesy to the speaker. It "never wrote to herself as a mere conduit for this "News," a being through which Me," the speaker complains in the poem's second line, thus a mysterious "Message" is passed rather than the creator of that beginning the poem with a sense of loneliness and frustration message. In other words, instead of expressing the speaker's at being overlooked. own thoughts and feelings, the poem is (or should be) a Importantly, although the speaker feels lonely and isolated, he transmission of "News" from the natural world. As a result, the or she still longs to be a part of the "World." The speaker signals speaker protests in the poem’s final lines, his or her readers this continued sense of belonging toward the end of the poem should “Judge tenderly”: in other words, don’t shoot the with the use of the word "countrymen." The word, which means messenger! Not only does this distance the poet from the "fellow citizens" or "fellow community members," suggests that poem, but it also elevates poetry itself as something the speaker continues to feel like a member of the "World" naturally—perhaps even divinely—inspired. After all, it is being addressed even if that World has not acknowledged the coming from some grand, "Majestic" force. speaker. Despite the World's seeming rejection, the speaker At the same time, however, the poet’s task as a messenger is considers him or herself to be one of those "countrymen" and clearly isolating. For one thing, nature is presented as remote, ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 1 Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com an inaccessible realm that the speaker does not fully speaker's personal thoughts, but rather about some sort of understand. The message that the speaker carries arrives "News" from "Nature." The speaker implies that poetry's task is through mysterious means, via "Hands" that the speaker to pass on some broader, objective message: taking nature's "cannot see." Although the speaker receives nature’s message, "simple News" and translating it, as best it can, into terms the the speaker does not seem to fully understand what nature is, "World" will understand. The alliteration of the /n/ sound in or exactly how—or by whose hands—its message arrives. "Nature" and "News" underscores this connection: if this Perhaps the speaker does not even fully understand this "News" is akin to poetry, then poetry itself is something plucked "Message" itself, and instead is grappling with how to parse the from the natural world. Poetry contains within in it grand "News" he or she has been given even as the speaker is tasked natural truths, and it is the poet's job to write this "News" with sharing that "News." The speaker’s loneliness is thus, to a down. certain extent, a consequence of being a poet: to be a poet The poem's form is appropriate for its moral and philosophical involves being situated as a messenger between the "World" seriousness. It is written as a ballad, with alternating lines of and "Nature"—but not being fully part of either. iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, rhymed ABCB. This meter and rhyme scheme was often used for hymns—the Where this theme appears in the poem: religious songs sung in English Church. For Dickinson’s first • Lines 1-8 readers, pious New Englanders who spent a lot of time in Church, the poem’s relationship to the hymn would’ve been obvious. LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS Dickinson appropriates the majesty of religious music, but not its rigidity: Dickinson’s meter is consistently inconsistent, LINES 1-4 diverging widely from the expected rhythms of an iambic line. For example, the poem’s very first line contains a spondee (two This is my letter to the World stresses) in its first foot: That never wrote to Me — The simple News that Nature told This is my letter to the World With tender Majesty The poem begins by announcing that "this," meaning the poem This emphasizes off the bat that this very document is itself, is a "letter" addressed to the "World." This "World" could something important and bold, a statement of intent. refer to the whole of human society, and as such this opening line reveals that the speaker is somehow separate from that LINES 5-8 society. The capitalization of "World" also underscores its Her Message is committed personification: the speaker views the World having the ability To Hands I cannot see — to write back, though it has never done so. For love of Her — Sweet — countrymen Already there's a sense of frustration and/or regret at the fact Judge tenderly — of Me that the speaker is so isolated, and that the rest of the "World" In the second half of the poem, the speaker describes the has failed to acknowledge the speaker's existence. means by which he or she either receives or sends out this Nevertheless, the speaker wants to pass along some sort of "News" from "Nature." It's possible to read lines 5 and 6 in two message to this World that he or she has received from different ways: "Nature" (which is similarly personified). These lines are both spare and dense; they use simple words • Nature's "Message" is entrusted to "Hands I cannot that are at once rich with meaning and intensely ambiguous, see," which then deliver that message to the speaker; raising as many questions as they do answers. Indeed, it's not • Or the speaker entrusts Nature's "Message" to those yet clear what exactly this "News" actually is, but it's possible to unseen Hands. interpret it as being a reference to poetry itself. Both are plausible readings and both employ synecdoche, with First off, note that this very "letter" that the speaker has the messengers being represented through their hands alone. written is, quite literally, a poem. This suggests that poetry is a This reflects the fact that the speaker doesn't know who or form of , which makes sense: poems are ways for communication what the messengers are—they're mysterious, unintelligible poets to express certain ideas, beliefs, or emotions to other entities. The assonance in line 6 subtly underscores this point: people—they are a means of translating thoughts and feelings the /a/ sound in "Hands" and "cannot" connects these into words that other people can read and understand. messengers to the speaker's inability to see them. Yet this particular poem does not seem to be about the The capitalization of these "Hands" also lends them a subtly ©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007 www.LitCharts.com Page 2 Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com religious quality; perhaps they're angels or spirits of some sort, poetry itself.
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