© 2012

MARLIA FONTAINE-WEISSE

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

“LEARNED GEM TACTICS”:

EXPLORING VALUE THROUGH GEMSTONES AND OTHER PRECIOUS

MATERIALS IN EMILY DICKINSON’S POETRY

A Thesis

Presented to

The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

Marlia Fontaine-Weisse

December, 2012

“LEARNED GEM TACTICS”:

EXPLORING VALUE THROUGH GEMSTONES AND OTHER PRECIOUS

MATERIALS IN EMILY DICKINSON’S POETRY

Marlia Fontaine-Weisse

Thesis

Approved: Accepted:

______Advisor Dean of the College Dr. Jon Miller Chand Midha, Ph.D.

______Faculty Reader Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Mary Biddinger George R. Newkome, Ph.D.

______Faculty Reader Date Dr. Patrick Chura

______Faculty Reader Dr. Hillary Nunn

______Department Chair Dr. William Thelin

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ABSTRACT

Reading Emily Dickinson’s use of pearls, diamonds, and gold and silver alongside periodicals available during her day helps to build a stronger sense of what the popular American cultural conceptions were regarding those materials and the entities they influenced. After looking at pearls in “The Malay – took the Pearl –” (Fr451) in

Chapter II, we discover how Dickinson’s invocation of a specific kind of racial other, the

Malay, and the story she constructs around them provides a very detailed view of the level of racial bias reserved for the Malay race, especially in relation to their role in the pearl industry. Most criticism regarding her gemstone use centers upon the various layers of interpretation fleshed out from her work rather than also looking to her poems as a source of musings on actual geo-political occurrences. Chapter III weighs Dickinson use of diamond in “Reverse cannot befall” (Fr565) against her established diamond strategy to uncover a historical power exchange between Bolivia and Peru. Through an examination of the context of war surrounding “A Plated Life – diversified” (Fr864) and

“Luck is not chance –” (Fr1360) and what she does with gold and silver in Chapter IV, it is evident that these poems are heavily influenced by Dickinson’s reaction to the

American Civil War. Through this examination of her use of gemstones and other precious materials, it becomes clear that Dickinson’s work is as much a source of history as it is a contribution to it.

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DEDICATION

To Ryan and Donovan, my most valued gems.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to extend a special thank you to my committee, especially Dr. Jon Miller, for their efforts in helping me produce a relevant piece of scholarship that contributes positively to the field of Dickinson research. Without your guidance, I would never have known how far I could challenge the boundaries of my abilities.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER

I. MY EMILY DICKINSON: AN INTRODUCTION…………………………………...1

II. MALAY, PEARL, EARL: DICKINSON AND THE POPULAR (MIS)CONCEPTION OF RACE………………….…………………………….…….10

The Malay – took the Pearl – / Not – I – the Earl –……………………………...16

I – feared the Sea – too much / Unsanctified – to touch –……………………….19

Praying that I might be / Worthy – the Destiny –………………………………..22

The Swarthy fellow swam – / And bore my Jewel – Home –…………………...24

Home to the Hut! What lot / Had I – the Jewel – got –………………………….26

Borne on a Dusky Breast – / I had not deemed a Vest / Of Amber – fit –………27

The Negro never knew / I – wooed it – too –……………………………………28

To gain, or be undone – / Alike to Him – One…………………………………..29

III. “A DIAMOND – OVERTAKE”: DICKINSON AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF WEALTH……………………………………………………………………………...34

Reverse cannot befall / That fine Prosperity / Whose Sources are interior –……45

As soon – Adversity –……………………………………………………………49

A Diamond – overtake – / In far – Bolivian ground –…………………………...50

Misfortune hath no implement / Could mar it – if it found –……………………51

IV. “WITH GOLD AND SILVER PAIN”: DICKINSON AND THE SPOILS OF

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WAR…………………………………………………………………………………..55

V. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS……………………………………………………….72

LITERATURE CITED…………………………………………………………………76

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CHAPTER I

MY EMILY DICKINSON: AN INTRODUCITON

Early on in her work, My Emily Dickinson, acclaimed poet Susan Howe summarizes well the end to the introduction of Thoreau’s A Week on the Concord and

Merrimack Rivers:

…he ended by remembering how he had often stood on the banks of the Musketaquid, or Grass-ground River English settlers had re-named Concord. The Concord’s current followed the same law in a system of time and all that is known. He liked to watch this current that was for him an emblem of all progress. Weeds under the surface bent gently downstream shaken by watery wind. Chips, sticks, longs, and even tree stems drifted past. There came a day at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn, when he resolved to launch a boat from shore and let the river carry him. (7)

This scene is important, for Emily Dickinson becomes Howe’s Concord River, allowing her to “head toward certain discoveries” as she drifts along the current of Dickinson’s poetry (7).

My introduction to Emily Dickinson produced much the same intrigue for me as the Concord River did for Howe. What stood out most during my first encounter with

Dickinson as a post baccalaureate at The University of Akron was, of course, her unique writing style. I was captivated by her break from tradition, and was eager to enroll in the

Whitman & Dickinson course to acquire a deeper understanding of her and her poetic

1 form—there had to be more to her than just dashes. As I began to critically analyze

Dickinson’s Poem 248, which begins “One life of so much consequence!” I became fascinated by her metaphorical use of pearl to signify the value placed on a woman’s chastity. The speaker weaves into this pearl image the value of one’s life and how the removal of something as precious as this pearl of virginity can figuratively end someone’s life as she knows it. This reading gave way to an underlying theme of sexual frustration as the speaker consciously marks the negative outcome of giving in to desire. But it wasn’t until another of her more famous sexual frustration poems was discussed that I became exceedingly curious about her use of this particular precious substance. Pearls are mentioned in Poem 656, but in this instance, they are used to describe the frothy lace atop the ocean waters that creep up her leg and are not so integral to the overall meaning of the text.

Wondering whether each use of pearl in her poetry led to sexual readings prompted me to scan the entire collection of poems in the R. W. Franklin edition of

Dickinson’s work. I quickly realized Dickinson also incorporates other gemstones into her poems—diamonds, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, topaz, opal, sapphire, and quartz—as well as precious materials like silver and gold. After charting every use of each gem, it became clear that pearls and other precious materials are important weapons in

Dickinson’s poetic arsenal. Diamonds can represent strength, rubies and amethysts color, or quartz translucence. Gold can signify power and value, or it unearths pain and suffering. But what remains to be seen is whether the value associated with that imagery was a characterization unique to Dickinson, or whether it was a creative tool produced by

2 the collective antebellum American perspective of those materials, a tool she wields masterfully.

In pursuing this answer, I came across Rebeccca Patterson’s 1979 classic, Emily

Dickinson’s Imagery. To date, Patterson’s chapter on jewel imagery remains the only comprehensive analysis of Dickinson’s gemstone use, which argues that Dickinson’s use of jewels among her poetry and letters, inspired by jewel imagery used by her contemporaries and the importance of sacred jewels found in the Bible, “may be her most important poetic stratagem” because its evaluation “might throw light on her poetic technique as well as contribute to an understanding of the individual poems”

(74). Through this examination, Patterson uncovers the role gemstones play within the works of such authors as Emerson, Tennyson, and Byron to highlight the significance of their use, and then shows how those gemstones represent important aspects of

Dickinson’s life (79). However exhaustive her research is regarding this subject,

Patterson’s work does not consider how the metaphorical value of those gems correlates to the popular conventions surrounding those stones. Her work is more biographical in nature and when she does incorporate periodicals into her research, she only utilizes the periodicals Dickinson had access to. But when we take into consideration the breadth of resources available to consumers that allow a better global perspective associated with these stones, we begin to see how Dickinson’s use of jewel imagery is further influenced by this world view. This can be done through tools for humanities research such as

Google Books and other full-text searchable databases that Patterson was not able to use since the technology was unavailable until the twenty-first century. Based on the

3 periodical evidence of the time found through these databases, I would argue the value associated with Dickinson’s use of precious materials is largely representative of contemporary cultural attitudes and should, therefore, be treated as a source of historical data.

During the mid-nineteenth century, a wide variety of cyclopedias, science journals, books, and other periodicals were published that detailed the discovery and collection of pearls and other gemstones along with their value within society. One such work that provides this insight is The Ladies’ Companion, and Monthly Magazine

(1855). This magazine’s purpose is to “elevate and strengthen the tone of feminine literature” so that it can “keep step with the march of masculine literature” (C.A.W. iv). The article, “History of Pearls, Natural and Artificial,” provides a more detailed account of how artificial pearls are made: “A French bead-maker named Jaquin, observing that when the small fish called ablette…was washed, the water was filled with fine silver-coloured particles…he found that the soft shining powder thus obtained had, to a remarkable degree, the lustre of pearls” (122). This powder is then collected and mixed with ammonia to keep from losing its luster, and the resulting paste is inserted into a glass bead that protects its contents and showcases its brilliance (122-123). Some of these artificial pearls are so impressively constructed that it is difficult for even the expert to notice a difference. Because of this, “the ignorant are often deceived by buying, as genuine productions of nature, articles which are mere fabrications” (The Book 65).

Knowing this information, and the fact that Dickinson was “someone acutely interested and well-educated in science” (238) as Karen Kilcup notes in her 1999 article

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“Emily Dickinson’s Pearls,” it becomes clear through a close reading of “We play at

Paste –” (Fr282) that Dickinson was aware of the process involved with artificial pearl production:

We play at Paste – Till qualified for Pearl – Then, drop the Paste – And deem Ourself a fool – The Shapes, tho’, were similar, 5 And our new Hands Learned Gem Tactics Practicing Sands –

This paste the speaker references at the beginning is the essence of pearl discovered by

Jaquin that is added to ammonia. One interpretation of the first two lines is that careful attention has to be paid to ensure the proper amount of ammonia is added to get the accurate luster of pearl. In light of this reading, the next two lines, “Then, drop the Paste

– / And deem Ourself a fool –,” reflect back to the idea that people who cannot identify the difference between artificial and natural pearls are foolish for falling for the ruse. As a means to make up for this foolishness, line 5 addresses how similar, even in shape, their artificial pearl is to natural pearls. And these “new Hands,” these foolish hands of theirs, have “Learned Gem Tactics,” which further demonstrates their foolishness at believing the artificial pearl to be qualified as, or regarded as equal to, natural, since their hands know better than to consider it real. This analysis not only provides a key to unlocking

Dickinson’s interest in jewels and their production, it also reiterates her connection to literature that discusses gemstones. Additionally, it indicates why pearls are the logical choice to begin this foray into Dickinson’s handling of precious materials, for it is also the jewel referenced most in her oeuvre.

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Much of the scholarship surrounding Emily Dickinson’s pearl use assumes a feminist and/or queer approach. In De Sousa Coelho’s 2002 article, “Dickinson’s ‘Tis

Little I – Could Care for Pearls,’” for example, she claims “the pearl—a word with sexual connotations—suggests that Dickinson may have another kind of social overvaluation in mind: the woman’s reproductive function. By renouncing that precious stone, the speaker also renounces a woman’s expected role” (141). Even though these types of readings can be argued, they still do not establish a connection between Dickinson’s pearl use to how pearls were seen in society. It is true Dickinson was a reclusive, private person; however, projecting an inward, personal muse onto her work can devalue her outward, literate connection to society.

In addition to Patterson’s and De Sousa Coelho’s research, Benfey, Kilcup,

Simpson, and Yin have contributed to this subject by either looking at pearls in isolation of the other jewels with the intention to uncover Dickinson’s connection to religion or to personal events, by looking at how all the stones imply a stronger connectivity to sexual desires, or by using pearls as a metaphor for the quality of her work. In Joanna Yin’s

1993 essay, “Arguments of Pearl: Dickinson’s Response to Puritan Semiology,” she argues that despite Dickinson’s families ability to cling with “oyster-like tenacity…to the spot where…successive generations” of Puritan believers have “imbedded” themselves, she “uses strategies that question, fragment, and even dismantle” the Puritan system that

“interpellated women as subordinate to men” (67-8). Christopher Benfey’s 1997 article,

“Alcohol and Pearl: Dickinson’s imprint on American Poetry” discusses posthumous reception, which argued whether her work was more “alcohol than pearl” in comparison

6 to the contemporary aesthetics of poetry. Karen Kilcups 1999 essay compares

Hawthorn’s and Dickinson’s use of pearl in relation to the “sexuality of the female child”

(238). In her 2005 article, “Pearl-diving: Inscriptions of Desire and Creativity in H.D. andWoolf,” Kathryn Simpson takes the “examination of the use of jewels and other small objects…in the work of Dickinson and other nineteenth-century women poets” that revealed a “deliberate employment of clitoral imagery” and applies it to H.D. and

Virginia Woolf (37). Rather than surveying each use of pearl or even the more famous pearl poems, chapter one isolates the connection in “The Malay – took the Pearl –”

(Fr451) between the allegory Dickinson shapes around the pearl and the pearl industry specific to the Indian Ocean. When read alongside periodicals discussing the topic, a sense of the underlying racial attitudes towards the Malay surfaces, indicating

Dickinson’s connection to a wider racial bias.

The next logical stone to discuss is the diamond, not only because it is the next most referenced stone in Dickinson’s lexicon, but, as Lewis Feuchtwanger states in his

1859 book, A Popular Treatise on Gems, because diamonds, “and particularly brilliants, have become more plentiful, and have since been worn, not by the higher classes alone, but also by the middling” in the mid-nineteenth century (404). Due to their new-found accessibility and their prestige, diamonds had become the preferred ornament of choice, diminishing the cost of pearls in its wake. Beyond the overproduction of diamonds, the second chapter investigates the reasons they are valued so highly, what political or other social implications are reflected in Dickinson’s use of them, and why there is a need to attach a history and place to them. Identifying and connecting the important cues in

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“Reverse cannot befall” (Fr565), like “Adversity,” “Diamond,” and “Bolivian Ground,” we see how this poem can easily be Dickinson’s way of describing a time during which the less powerful Bolivia successfully aided Peru in conquering rebel dissenters.

The third and final chapter revisits Dickinson’s Civil War poetry, a volatile period in

America and, yet, a productive time for Dickinson. The work produced during this pivotal stage in American culture reflects an emotional Dickinson who questions the validity of battle, the value of life, and, among other things, the valor of those who would wage war though not participate. Dickinson analyzes the war from various viewpoints, and much of the scholarship on her poetry during this time has deconstructed those views. For example, Faith Barrett focuses on Dickinson’s view of death and the battlefield in her 2008 article, “‘Drums off the Phantom Battlements’: Dickinson’s War

Poem in Discursive Context,” and Renee Bergland inspects Dickinson’s birds-eye view of the war and how she accurately navigates that aerial space in her 2008 essay, “The

Eagle’s Eye: Dickinson’s View of Battle.” In Leigh-Anne Urbanowicz Marcellin’s 2000 article, “‘Singing off the Charnel Steps’: Soldiers and Mourners in Emily Dickinson’s

War Poetry” she provides a “comprehensive analysis of Dickinson’s war poetry” (64), while paying particular attention to the correlation between soldiers and mourning and in her 2006 article, “‘Lives – Like Dollars’: Dickinson and the Poetics of Witness,” Cynthia

Hogue discusses Dickinson-as-witness in her text.

But one overarching theme within Dickinson’s Civil War poetry is the relationship between cost and benefit, which she frequently does through economic language. That language resembles monetary exchanges, and often the currency is the

8 lives of soldiers. Currency, like most institutions within America at the time, was also going through an identity crisis. Dickinson explores this crisis within several of her poems, allowing her the opportunity to manipulate gold and silver in a way that reveals the questionable choices made during the war. Chapter three takes a closer look at one of the most popular poems from this period, “It feels a shame to be Alive –” (Fr524), and connects it to two other poems that have not been viewed as ones dealing directly with the Civil War. “A Plated Life – diversified” (Fr 864) uncovers Dickinson’s association with weaponry. Though “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –” (Fr 764) is heavily referenced, how it connects Dickinson’s interest to the weapons used in the war has not been sufficiently considered. The last poem reviewed, “Luck is no chance –,” is viewed as Dickinson’s reproachful attitude towards the financial state of America during and after the war. Chapter three looks at the role gold and silver play within the Civil War— in weapons and in commerce—and updates the list of Dickinson poems that refer to the

Civil War.

If the major theme for this project is placing Dickinson’s use of pearl, diamond, and gold and silver within the popular cultural context of her day, the minor theme is portraying the importance of using technological advances to update existing scholarship.

Martha Nell Smith also recognizes this importance in her 2008 article, “Public, Private

Spheres: What Reading Emily Dickinson’s Mail Taught me about Civil Wars,” when she explains that “new technologies for distributing humanities research can make possible, on a scale to a degree not realizable by books, access to the processes that bring cultural knowledge into being” (71). Having open-access to primary materials through these

9 databases like Google Books further opens the scope of research and allows new scholars to test traditional critical views and contribute new ideas to the field. These new technologies allow for a greater understanding of the cultural psyche during the nineteenth century, and my project is the first of many to construct an image of that psyche on a micro scale surrounding particular items encountered on a macro level.

Like the Thoreau’s description of the Concord River, Emily Dickinson’s work is an emblem of all progress that we can chart through the movement of ordinary items as they drift through her individual poems. Instead of weeds, chips, and logs, my project looks at four of the most valued precious substances and observes how the watery wind of antebellum American culture shakes the path of these materials in just a handful of

Dickinson’s poems. Unlike the Concord River, however, Dickinson’s poetry did not follow the same law in a system of time and all that is known. It broke the laws of tradition and found ways to rewrite those laws that relegated poetry to a cookie cutter ideal. As we head toward new discoveries in technology and research, it becomes the duty of all scholars no matter how new or seasoned to take advantage of those resources and update and contribute to existing scholarship. Through the use of these resources and the application of a new historicist approach, the following chapters have lead me to my own certain discoveries of how Emily Dickinson reshaped the aesthetics of poetry that can be used as a guide to update scholarship within any discipline.

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CHAPTER II

MALAY, PEARL, EARL: DICKINSON AND THE (MIS)CONCEPTION OF RACE

Fred D. White’s 2008 critical reader of Emily Dickinson’s work, Approaching

Emily Dickinson, provides an overview of Dickinson scholarship for those looking to study Dickinson more seriously. In his survey of Betsy Erkkila’s “Dickinson and the Art of Politics,” White highlights Erkkila’s notion that while “Dickinson very seldom makes any direct reference to specific political events, ‘her poetic landscapes—even her most interior ones—are full of ‘public’ attitude about the political, social, religious, sexual, racial, scientific, and economic contests that marked her time” (qtd. in White 107).

White puts it more generally by explaining how the “fact that she was a recluse does not make her any less a product of her culture, as being a recluse does not mean being totally sealed off from the world” (107). Dickinson was well-educated, well-read, and benefited from an aristocratic upbringing drenched in politics that allowed her to remain at the forefront of political, social, and cultural trends. It is because of such strong connections to the outside world that the world around her—both locally and internationally—found its way into her poetry.

One subject of little discussion is her use of contemporary racial attitudes and whether those attitudes strengthen or weaken her poetics. Even though her article seeks

11 to resituate “Dickinson as fully and complexly as possible in relation to the social, political, and cultural struggles of her times” (1), Betsy Erkkila’s “Emily Dickinson and

Class,” published in 1992, glosses over the racially marked tone of Dickinson’s “desire to define herself against and distinguish herself from the potentially polluting incursion of the democratic multitude” (7). This multitude consists of not only the poor, but also an

“intrusion from abroad” that she hopes “will pass away, as insects on vegetation” to let

Austin, Sue, Vinnie and herself “reap together in harvest time” as Dickinson wrote to her brother, Austin (qtd. in Erkkila 7). This, Erkkila would agree, speaks to the economic strain she fears could reduce her and her family’s status; however, it also suggests an unwillingness to accept change and the inclusion of the racial other.

Of the few articles that attempt to discuss Dickinson and race, none speaks to the pointedness of her potential racism better than Paula Bernat Bennett’s “‘The Negro never knew’: Emily Dickinson and Racial Typology in the Nineteenth Century.” This article, published in 2003, describes Bennett’s recognition of Dickinson’s “The Malay – took the

Pearl –” as “one of many [nineteenth-century] texts in which the denigration of people of color is treated so casually one barely registers it’s there” (53). Despite her possible enjoyment of their “gimmicky appeal,” or “because she was, in fact, self-consciously racist,” Bennett argues that “Dickinson, whose use of language was never careless, invokes a number of conventional stereotypes, making coy references to ‘Bridgets,’

‘Jews,’ and ‘Malays,’ whom she willfully conflates (presumably on the basis of skin color) with ‘Negro[s]” (56). It is from these conventional stereotypes Dickinson constructs a multifunctional poem that at its most virtuous is a commentary on popular

12 conceptions of race. In particular, Dickinson’s invocation of a specific kind of racial other, the Malay, and the story she constructs around them provides a very detailed view of the level of racial bias reserved for the Malay race, especially in relation to their role in the pearl industry. Taking a closer look at this poem will allow us to truly understand the breadth of knowledge it provides.

The Malay – took the Pearl – Not – I – the Earl – a – too much Unsanctified – to touch –

Praying that I might be 5 Worthy – the Destiny – The Swarthy fellow swam – And bore my Jewel – Home –

Home to the Hut! What lot Had I – the Jewel – got – 10 Borne on a Dusky Breast – I had not deemed a Vest Of Amber – fit –

The Negro never knew I – wooed it – too – 15 To gain, or be undone – Alike to Him – One

The consensus is that this poem represents the love triangle Emily Dickinson felt she was unjustly forced into with her brother, Austin, and his new bride, Susan. From the time Susan found herself back in Amherst she not only captivated the older Dickinson children, but the entire Dickinson family as well. As Lyndall Gordon states in her Lives

Like Loaded Guns, the newest take on Dickinson’s biography, “From the first, the

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Dickinsons, who thought themselves unlike other people, recognized—or thought they recognized—a likeness in this bookish young woman who had come to live amongst them” (63). Seeing her as one of them only fueled the desire for both Austin and Emily

“to possess” her, made evident through their repeated letters of appeal that “vented parallel longings” (65). Once Austin won her hand and the nostalgia of gaining a sister- in-law whom she truly loved wore off, Emily penned “The Malay – took the Pearl –,” giving some credence to the notion that Emily wrote herself as the Earl, Austin as the

Malay, and Susan as the Pearl.

Yet, the characters of this tale play their roles so well it is nearly impossible to think that the narrative of their situation is only offered as a means to discuss the events of Dickinson’s life, a “vision of Austin’s courtship and marriage of Sue as a kind of rape and of the poet-speaker as triumphed over by one braver, because cruder, than herself,” as Judith Farr describes in The Passion of Emily Dickinson, a work published in 1992 that maps the source of Dickinson’s passion to the art and culture of her day (147).

Inspiration for the parable itself has been linked to Robert Browning’s Paracelsus, in which Paracelsus asks of Festus and Michal whether there are two points in the adventure of the diver: “One—when a beggar, he prepares to plunge? / One—when, a prince, he rises with his pearl?” (qtd. in Variorum 2: 472); Farr proposes Thomas De Quincy’s

Confessions of an English Opium Eater as another potential source, since he mentions an encounter with an enemy Malay (149); and Rebecca Patterson attributes the source to

“James T. Field’s article, ‘Diamonds and Pearls,’ in the March 1861 Atlantic (82); however, for this allegory to work, there has to be some level of truth behind it, more so

14 than the coincidence that divers, pearls, and Malay are mentioned in two contemporary works and that the sound of the word Malay is to link it to male; hence, its widely accepted connection to Austin, “the only true male in the poem” (Leiter 188).

Robert Weisbuch hits closer to the mark within his “Anti-Allegory” chapter of his book, Emily Dickinson’s Poetry, published in 1975, in which he explains how

Dickinson’s poems “participate in a major romantic form which…often pose as heuristic allegories, as a series of events, scenes, and attitudes in search of an abstract, referential explanation” (48). He asserts that it is up to the reader “to formulate a theme broad enough to support the poem’s burden and to refuse to transform analogical illustration into factual statement, biography, or arbitrarily dreamed-up allegory” (57). In other words, readers should avoid interpreting the poem as an actual event that took place between a Malay and an Earl, as a reference to an occurrence in Dickinson’s life, or as a story with no basis in reality. Similarly, he warns against the tendency “to pin down a poetry which depends on expansible meaning” (56). By following Weisbuch’s suggestion and erasing these various expansions of interpretation, we are left with a text that is grounded in factual information, attributable to real-life situations. In doing so, we can see just how racially fueled Dickinson’s poetry can be, while at the same time, how useful an indicator it is to understanding the popular conceptions regarding the common practices and prominent figures within the pearl industry. This line-by-line examination will do more than shy away from denigrating racial stereotypes by focusing on the economic interchange between what the white man “implicitly deserves” and what the

15 black man took for himself; it will help to expose the underlying prejudice common in the nineteenth century (12).

“The Malay – took the Pearl – / Not – I – the Earl –”

From the start, Dickinson uses three powerful nouns to place the reader into the appropriate, though underappreciated, historical context; Malay, Pearl, and Earl are all important figures within the pearl industry. There were successful pearl fisheries in

America and Europe; however, we discover from reference works like The Book of

Commerce by Sea and Land, Exhibiting its Connection with Agriculture, the Arts, and

Manufacture (1845)1 that it was widely known at the time that the “finest pearls [came] from India,” specifically “that fishery which takes place on the coast of Ceylon” (63-64).

As Hugh Murray tells us in his East Indian Archipelago chapter of his work, The

Encyclopedia of Geography (1837), Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) is a large island in the Indian Ocean that makes up part of the Indo-Australasian Archipelago, the Malay

Archipelago, or the East Indian Archipelago as it is sometimes called.2 The inhabitants of this region were simply referred to as Malay, due to what was seen as similar qualities across the various islands. The Malay were dark-skinned, and because of their proximity to the sea, were very adept at travel and navigation. More than just “an aesthetic contrast between the Malay’s darkness and the Pearl’s brightness,” the use of these figures and the actions that transpire between them produces for readers a sense of the anxiety over what potentially could occur during pearl fishing season (Leiter 188). Not only that, but using the Malay in the way Dickinson does plays up the demeaning

16 stereotypes of the Malay that had increased in popularity since the turn of the nineteenth century.

One account that demonstrates the start of such stereotypes is Robert Percival’s

“Character of the Malay Slaves” in Flowers of Literature; for 1804: or Characteristic

Sketches of Human Nature and Modern Manners.3 In this work, he describes the character of the Malay slaves held at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. He observes that of all the slaves the Dutch import, “those from the Malay Isles are particularly ferocious and vindictive” (41). He expands upon this impression by claiming that this “class of people are extremely vindictive, treacherous, and ferocious, implacable in their revenge, and, on the slightest provocation or imaginary insult, will commit murder” (41). Additionally, he describes the general fear the Malay slaves elicit when revenge overcomes them:

When a Malay has determined on revenge, he takes a quantity of opium, to work himself up to a state of madness, when he rushes out with a knife, or dagger, which is called a kreese; and, after putting to death the original object of his infernal passion, he next rushes at everyone he meets till he is at length overpowered and taken; which, perhaps, is not the case till several victims fall before him….This is what is called running a muck; on the slightest alarm of which every one flies before him and escapes the best way he can. (41-42)

Written as a detailed first-person account, the sequence of events just described would ignite more terror and garner more belief than a fictional narrative of the same catastrophe; thus, this account and many others like it fueled the conceptions of the

Malay as a dangerous race of people who were skilled in committing the most heinous acts.

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The Round Table, a newspaper that published one of Emily Dickinson’s poems,4 published an article on December 26, 1863, nearly sixty years after the above sketch was published, that demonstrates the continued belief in the insidiousness of the Malay. The article, called “Exit the Democratic Party,” offers an evaluation of democratic hopeful

Fernando Woods, and says of his “sense of responsibility for personal obligations and good faith” in reference to his friends that he is “as treacherous as a Malay, and stabs his personal and political associates with a poisoned dagger from a mere gluttony of scoundrelism” (20). In a later article, called “New York City—Where its People Come

From,” the author explains how New York City brings “every grade of civilization, from the Oxford professor to the stupid Malay and the African cannibal…every moral quality or lack of quality to be found on earth—all imbued with the idea that this is a free country and they can do as they please” (228). These articles were written after the year

Dickinson likely wrote “The Malay – took the Pearl,” and her equating the Malay’s ease of taking precious lives with taking precious materials recreates the proper framework to draw out racial stereotypes and generate anxiety over the Malay’s actions in the poem.

If Dickinson’s use of Malay was her way of representing the one true male in her poem, then the earl could be read as a way of placing herself inside the text—Earl rhymes with girl. But in consideration of the present argument regarding the extraordinary accuracy of Dickinson’s historical context, the Earl’s role further strengthens the possibility that she was acutely aware of the pearl industry, but specifically the thriving pearl fishery at Ceylon. A work detailing American missionaries published just fifty miles from Emily’s home in 1840 briefly recounts the political history of Ceylon. This

18 book, called History of American Missions to the Heathen, from their Commencement to the Present Time, explains how the Dutch entered into a treaty with Ceylon’s native emperor in 1602, and, until 1782, had control over the island (Tracy 59). After 1782, the

English briefly occupied Trincomolee, gained control over all the parts of the island not controlled by the native government, and finally took possession of the whole island in

1815 (59).

This is important because, according to the online version of Noah Webster’s

1844 American Dictionary, the version owned by Dickinson, an Earl is a “British title of nobility, or a nobleman, the third in rank, being next below a marquis, and next above a viscount”.5 Dickinson could have used any other term to denote someone who has power enough to contract a pearl diver while that person remained distant across the sea. In fact, she frequently uses monarch, a more general term of power, in her poetry. By choosing a term that is only associated with the British, Earl becomes the missing link in the contemporary paradigm of the pearl industry, and quite possibly the pearl fisheries of

Ceylon.

“I – feared the Sea – too much / Unsanctified – to touch –”

It is widely known that the sea is a popular metaphor in Dickinson’s poetry.

According to Judith Farr, the sea “is a frequent metaphor for eternity” but it is also one of the metaphors for Sue (150). Outside of the biographical interpretation, Sharon Leiter suggests that here “it may represent the speaker’s unconscious, the unknown depths of female sexuality, or, more generally, the unknown” (189). Though these interpretations are plausible in their connection to Dickinson’s life, the case can also be made to show

19 how the Earl’s fear of the sea is a common reaction to the atrocities foreign vessels unwillingly submit to once in close proximity to pearl fisheries.

In the 1810 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica6, the entry for Malacca paints a disturbing picture of the people in the Malay islands concerning their malicious acts of piracy. It describes how it is “not in the least uncommon for an handful of these horrid savages suddenly to embark, attack a vessel by surprise, massacre the people, and make themselves master of her” (477). In fact, the “Malay batteaux, with 24 or 30 men, have been known to board European ships of 30 or 40 guns, in order to take possession of them, and murder with their poignards great part of the crew” (477). These acts were not only a phenomena at the turn of the century, they continued on into at least the mid-

1800s.

In the first volume of his work, The Romance of Travel: The East, Charles Mac

Farlane evaluates the Malay, as of 1846, and explains their continued involvement in piracy:

The Malay race, who had conquered the peninsula which bears their name, and who had spread over the lower parts of Java, Sumatra, and all the greater islands of the Indian Archipelago, were—even as they still continue to be—the most active and desperate of pirates. There has been a period in the history of every ancient maritime people, when the profession was considered honorable: it was so among the early Greeks, among the Northmen of the middle ages, and it is, and for ages has been so, among the Malays—a cunning, active, daring, and revengeful people. (115; italics original)

This account depicts a collective understanding of the dangers European ships incur as a result of their travel to the Malay region. Shipmen were warned to only contract two or three Malay seamen at a time and only if they were in distress for fear that any more

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Malay allowed on board would drive them to overpower the crew (“Malacca” 477). A person of nobility who had the means to travel abroad, and especially the means to invest in the pearl industry, would have known these dangers and, therefore, might fear traveling the sea to participate in that pearl fishery.

Farr interprets the Earl to be fearful of the Sea “because [the speaker] fears the deed: taking the pearl and violating eternity’s rule whereby pearls go to divers” (150).

This violation of eternity’s rule regarding finders of valuable objects having the right to keep those objects could be at the heart of the Malay’s vicious attitude towards the infiltration of foreign entities in their land, particularly during pearl fishing season. In

William Samuel Waithman Ruschenberger’s Narrative of a Voyage Round the World,

During the Years 1835, 36, and 377, he recounts the number of divers at Ceylon’s Arippo pearl fishery: “At the Fishing in 1833, twelve hundred and fifty divers were employed, of which number 1100 were from the coast of India, and only 150 from Ceylon” (323). This indicates a citizenry who does not have access to the full profitability of their own goods, even though their skill is in high demand.

Pearl fishing is a dangerous labor and requires more than an ability to remain under water for long periods of time. In The Book of Commerce by Sea and Land, a detailed description is offered to better understand the expertise it takes to efficiently fish for pearls. A group of ten divers are assigned to each boat, with five divers diving at a time. Each diver has “a large stone attached to their foot, of forty or fifty pounds’ weight, to enable them to sink; this has a line fastened to it, that it may be drawn up, and serve again” (64). Once about to descend, the diver takes the rope “between the toes of his

21 right foot, for by custom he can use his toes as well as his fingers,” and he holds “a bag of net with his left foot” (64). After plunging anywhere from eight to ten fathoms under water to the oyster bed, the diver releases the stone, and for the better part of a minute, gathers upwards of one hundred oysters.

The article, “History of Pearls, Natural and Artificial” of The Ladies’ Companion, and Monthly Magazine8, adds to this outline by explaining that “[t]he diver is also provided with a strong knife for detaching the oysters, and as a means of defense against sharks” (120). Before he runs out of breath, the diver pulls on the rope to alert the men above to begin pulling him up (The Book of Commerce by Sea and Land 64). It is not uncommon for this process to occur forty or fifty times in one day, wreaking havoc on the divers’ bodies: “the violence of [pearl diving] appears, by [the diver’s] discharging water, and sometimes blood, from his mouth, ears and nose” (64). The chapter continues on to say that they “are the poorest wretches who labor in this dangerous way; they live but a few years, for they are liable to the bursting of blood vessels, drowning, being devoured by sharks, or death from deep consumption” (64). Though fishing for pearls is undoubtedly a dangerous occupation, the payment, a small portion of the oysters, and the possibility of attaining their own valuable pearl(s), is enough to commit divers to the task.

To overcome so many obstacles for potentially no personal gain, divers must be sanctified, or blessed, with the means and the skillfulness to accomplish the feats. As

Robert Percival tells us in his account of Ceylon, these “people are accustomed to dive from their infancy,” and are therefore born with an ability that few outsiders can hope to develop (64). The Earl would be “Unsactified – to touch -” the pearl because he would

22 not have the proper experience to dive for it himself. Not only could he fear the sea because the Malay pirates jeopardize his safety, he could fear the outcome of his inability to delve into the deep waters to retrieve the pearl on his own. This reading makes possible Dickinson’s awareness of this potential fear and capitalized on it as a means to further attach her poem to the prevailing racial attitudes of her day.

“Praying that I might be / Worthy – the Destiny –”

In a work that outlines the books in Emily Dickinson’s possession, the materials used in her lessons, and those she had likely read based on references identified in her poems, Jack Capps’ Emily Dickinson’s Readings 1836-1886 (1966) explains the likely connection this poem has to Browning’s Paracelsus, though “her letters contain neither the title nor any quotations from it” (89). These lines seem closest to the second point in the adventure of a diver that Paracelsus discusses with Festus and Michal: “when, a prince, he rises with his pearl?” (qtd. in Capps 90). The Earl would pray that the diver could fish a pearl for him large enough to make him a prince. Though fishing for pearl oysters was practically an exact science, finding pearls of great value was not. There was nothing to indicate whether or not an oyster even carried a pearl; though, according to

Lewis Feuchtwanger’s A Popular Treatise on Gems9, the “pearl fishers say that when the shell is smooth and perfect, they never expect to find any pearls, but always do so when it has begun to be deformed and distorted” (401). This may be the reason why pearl oysters are at their best after seven years of life. Robert Percival explains that the “oysters are supposed to attain their completest state of maturity in seven years; for, if left too long,…the pearl gets so large and disagreeable to the fish, that it vomits and throws it out

23 of the shell” (“An Account” 61). An oyster lacking deformities might prove to be younger than the sought-after seven-year-old because it has not existed in the waters long enough to obtain signs of maturity. Waiting until those visible signs occur will help divers avoid fishing an oyster before its pearl grows to its largest possible state.

When it comes to the value of a pearl, the size is all that matters. As explained in

The Book of Commerce by Sea and Land, pearls “are valued according to the square of their weight. If a pearl of one carat be worth ten shillings, a pearl of six carats will be worth thirty-six times as much, or eighteen pounds; for the square of six, that is the number multiplied by itself, is thirty-six” (65). Pearls are different than most gems in that their value is not also based on their color or clarity. Even though pearls “should be of a clear white, and highly glistening,” some countries prefer pearls that are not white

(65). It was known at the time that pearls “of a brilliant white color, or white water, are most sought for in Europe; those of a yellowish color in some parts of Asia; and some of a lead color, or those of jet black are preferred among some nations” (Feuchtwanger 403).

The Earl, not brave enough to journey to the pearl fishery to witness firsthand the potential prosperity of his venture, nor physically able to retrieve the oysters himself, would be left with the only weapon that has the potential to affect the outcome: an appeal to a higher power. The desired destiny of any person who has a stake in the pearl industry is finding a large, valuable pearl—in this case a large white pearl. The Earl was not worthy enough to be sanctified with the skills to dive for pearls; because he was not given those means, his prayer, then, is that he is at least worthy enough to attain the ultimate destiny of a sizable pearl.

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“The Swarthy fellow swam – / And bore my Jewel – Home –”

No line is more packed with racial tropes than “The Swarthy fellow swam –.”

According to the online version of Webster’s 1844 American dictionary, “swarthy” is an adjective defined as being “of dark hue or dusky complexion; tawny. In warm climates, the complexion of men is universally swarthy or black. The Moors, Spaniards and

Italians are more swarthy than the French, Germans and English.” By itself, swarthy appears to be an innocent, common description to refer back to the Malay; however, its pairing with “fellow,” another seemingly innocent term, produces a reaction far from guiltless.

In its most basic use, a fellow is someone who is looked at as a companion or an equal. As a matter of fact, the 1844 definition has a variation of that meaning for its first five listed definitions. Yet, “fellow,” taken together with “Swarthy,” in this regard can only contain the sixth definition: an “appellation of contempt; a man without good breeding or worth; an ignoble man; as, a mean fellow.” Considering, too, that the root of swarthy, “swart,” has as its second definition “gloomy; malignant,” it becomes more apparent that “Swarthy fellow” is not a phrase meant to describe the Malay as an equal of the Earl. Erkkila believes this poem “appears to use the language of racial and class differences to represent an essentially egalitarian spiritual order in which all—blacks as well as whites, “Swarthy” fellows as well as the “Earl”—have access to the “Jewel” of

God’s grace;” however, the connotation of the phrase hardly allows any room, whether physically or spiritually, for the “Earl” and the “Swarthy fellow” to share any equality

(11).

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Like a pearl, this phrase has many layers of historical interpretation that represent the transition of affection the Earl goes through once he discovers the Malay took his jewel. Before the events in the poem, the Earl would believe the Malay to be a tawny companion, someone who was equally vested in his pursuit of a valuable pearl. Once the

Malay takes the pearl, however, the Earl believes him now to be a malignant, dishonest black man of no worth and without good breeding. This new opinion solidifies what potential readers would already know and be reminded of from the very beginning of the poem—the Malay cannot be trusted.

Dickinson continues to capitalize on the duality of interpretation with “bore” and

“Jewel.” On the surface, the reader would immediately connect “bore” to the preterite of

“bear,” to carry. This logic follows the action of the Malay swimming away with the

Earl’s gem. But “bore” also means to “perforate or penetrate a solid body and make a round hole by turning an auger, gimlet, or other instrument. Hence, to make hollow; to form a round hole.” Using bore in this way points towards making jewelry on the banks of the pearl fisheries, another common trade associated with the pearl industry.

In the article “History of Pearls, Natural and Artificial,” the goings-on at the shores of Ceylon during pearl fishing season are described in perfect detail along with the actions of pearl diving. Of the thousands of spectators who attend, “there are also numerous Indian artisans who are very expert in piercing and drilling pearls, and who practice their trade on the spot” (121). These artisans use numerous instruments “both for cutting and drilling pearls,” as well as cleaning, polishing, and rounding them (121).

Once pearls are drilled, they are immediately sold for jewelry. Considering that the first

26 definition for “jewel” is an “ornament worn by ladies, usually consisting of a precious stone, or set with one or more; a pendent worn in the ear,” it is evident that “and bore my

Jewel – home –” is a line that can be read with the pearl industry in mind.

“Home to the Hut! What lot / Had I – the Jewel – got –”

In an article published in 2000 that discusses Dickinson’s view of her own whiteness against the racial other, Vivian Pollak’s “Dickinson and the Poetics of

Whiteness” argues that Dickinson uses her whiteness as “an ambivalent sign of historical privilege” (85). In that case, the “treasure is rightfully [the Earl’s] because of the intensity of her longing” and the privilege of her race, but “the racial and sexual other gets to take her jewel ‘Home – / Home to the Hut!” (90). This is a reasonable deduction based on the context of the tale, but is not the only rational interpretation. “Home to the

Hut!” offers a double entendre that initially suggests the Malay taking the pearl to his own home, a hut, and regards a common practice in the pearl industry, as well. At the end of every diving day, each boat “owner has a shallow pit fenced round and secured for his own use, in which his store of oysters is deposited, and left open to the air. This pit, or couttó, as it is called, is in the midst of a group of huts belonging to the same owner, so that it is under guard of his party” (“History of Pearls” 121). Dickinson, who unmistakably had knowledge of pearls, and quite possibly the pearl industry, would continue to layer that knowledge into the remainder of the poem. In either case, the hut can be looked at as a place where the Earl cannot obtain his destiny.

The next line indicates the Earl’s acknowledgment that he was unworthy his intended destiny and the combined destiny that he and his jewel share was not something

27 either deserved. When he states, “What lot - / Had I – the Jewel – got –,” the Earl means to say “What lot had he gotten,” as an ironic question posed to illustrate his rotten luck for losing the pearl; he also wonders at the rotten luck the jewel had received that it would be in the Malay’s possession.

“Borne on a Dusky Breast – / I had not deemed a Vest / Of Amber – fit –”

According to the 1844 online version of Noah Webster’s American Dictionary, the term “dusky” can mean tending “to blackness in color; partially black; dark-colored; not bright; as a dusky brown.” This line reiterates the transition the pearl went through to become a jewel. The jewel was carried on a black man’s chest, either as a necklace or pinned to a vest. What is interesting is that Dickinson did not refer to the jewel as a pearl again, signifying the permanence of boring into pearls and their inability to return to their untarnished state, much like the pearl’s inability to return to the Earl. Based on the description of the breast carrying the jewel, it is easily inferable that this Earl believes the

Malay undeserving of keeping the pearls they fish for themselves, especially when he, an

Earl, “had not deemed a Vest / Of Amber – fit –” enough to carry the pearl. Vests, or waistcoats, made of amber-colored fabric were usually worn by men during more formal occasions, like attending court.10 Therefore, if the pearl was too valuable for an Earl’s formal garment, in comparison, it certainly was too precious for a Malay’s vest set for any occasion.

“The Negro never knew / I – wooed it – too –”

As mentioned previously, Dickinson conflates several racial others with Negro, whether those others are dark-skinned or not (Bennett 56). At the time, it was believed

28 that the recognizable differences between races categorized each one as its own species, so interchanging the dark-skinned ones was not something that commonly occurred.

John H. Van Evrie’s Negroes and Negro “Slavery:” The First an Inferior Race: The

Latter Its Normal Condition (1861), lists in order of superiority, and consequently brightness of skin color, the number of species of man: “1st. The Caucasian. 2d. The

Mongolian. 3d. The Malay or Oceanic. 4th. The Aboriginal American. 5th. The

Esquimaux; and 6th. The Negro or typical African” (44). Of the Malays, he says they

“are darker than the Mongol, though in some islands of a bright copper color, and indeed, vary from light olive to dark brown…to deep black, but with no other approximation to the Negro” (45). When reading texts like Van Evrie’s, a nearly tangible general disdain towards racial minorities arises; however, none seems as despised as the Negro.

In the translated version of French author J. J. Virey’s book, the Natural History of the Negro Race, published in 1837, the “features, characteristics, figure and colour of the negro species” is described in intricate detail (1). Virey depicts Negros to be more

“disposed to sensual affections, than to pure contemplations of the mind”; therefore, “the negro has more feelings than thoughts, his intellect is not generally so extensive as that of the white man; his shape even bears some resemblance to the Orang-Outang” (1-2). This perception of the Negro lends more prejudice to the lines “The Negro never knew / I – wooed it – too –.” Negroes were not believed to have the intellectual capacity of the white man, and with the Negro presumably acting out of desire more than organized thought, much like an animal, his taking the pearl, something that presumably was never to be his, reemphasizes the prevailing conceptions of race. Additionally, Dickinson’s use

29 of Negro as a more general expression allows nothing to be missed: if the racial bias has yet to be understood by the reader because of a lack of familiarity with previous racially slanted terms, using Negro would remove all doubt of the type of person the Earl was dealing with.

“To gain, or be undone – / Alike to Him – One”

Leiter explains that in the final two lines of the poem “the crude Malay is portrayed as more or less indifferent to his prize” (188). To him, “To gain, or be undone

–,” meaning simply to gain the riches expected of a large pearl or nothing at all, are the exact same—“Alike to him – One.” This becomes an extension of the presumed lack of intelligence Negros have. But another interpretation of these lines contributes to the racially motivated subtext, which leads to the worst consequence for the Earl. If the

Earl’s only options were “To gain” this jewel, “or be undone –,” he would go broke, or be left with nothing. Since the Malay made the decision for him by taking the pearl, the

Earl is now “Alike to Him –.” The Earl has now fallen to the level of the Malay, so they are “One” and the same. Though he will never be similar in tone to the Negro, because the Malay took the pearl, the Earl is now equal in worth. Virey tells us that “the negro is in some respect by his form, the capacity of his skull, the weakness and degradation of his mind, the reverse of the European” (3; italics original). Additionally, Farr notes that

“the speaker never really wants to be blameworthy”; however, Dickinson includes enough racially prejudiced contexts that explicit blame was not warranted and certainly would not be placed on the Earl (150; italics original). It is evident from the language in

30 the poem that the worthless, despicable black man is the cause for the white man’s lost privilege.

The reverse of the European, a representation of the white upper class, could be the exact fear Dickinson expresses in writing this poem. Several of her letters address her concerns over her family’s economic status in relation to the influx of outsiders and the exodus of the educated young people. Betsy Erkkila maintains that “[w]ithin the

Dickinson household and in her poems, Dickinson was in some sense the spokesperson and representative of older ruling class interests” (9). This representation, however, does not end at the differences in economic status. They also include racial differences. In a letter to Austin referring to his Irish students, Dickinson writes that she “should like to have [Austin] kill some—there are so many now, there is no room for the Americans”

(qtd. in Gordan 68). Not intended for any other audience, Dickinson would have no cause to hide her sentiments towards racial others in her personal correspondence, and those sentiments continued throughout her life.

Responding to Vivian Pollak’s claim that Dickinson’s racist tone was restricted to her early letters, Paula Bernat Bennett highlights a letter to Elizabeth Holland that

Dickinson wrote in 1881, which demonstrates her anxiety towards racial others even at fifty-one years old: “‘We have a new Black Man [Dickinson’s capitals] and are looking for a Philanthropist to direct him, because every time he presents himself, I run, and when the Head of the Nation shies, it confuses the Foot’” (qtd. in Bennett 56). Dickinson’s resistance towards interacting with others who visually embody the reverse of her status could be one more reason she preferred the confines of her room. I would therefore agree

31 with Bennett that Dickinson not only “held…her class’s conservative social values; she shared its racial attitudes also” (53).

Dickinson did not formally write for an audience, and so, she had the freedom to use whatever language was most honest to her intended meaning. Her use of racially charged conceptions regularly attached to the Malay and the pearl industry offered her the creative outlet to construct a text that represents her substantial worldly knowledge, while at the same time pinpoints her narrow-mindedness and her reluctance to accept change. Pollak argues that “‘The Malay – took the Pearl –’ is perhaps her most extended dramatic meditation on race” and admits that it is “not wholly successful in freeing itself of racism” (92). In fact, this poem is not at all successful in freeing itself of racism simply because it has no reason to do so. That does not mean acknowledging the racial nuances should take away from the brilliance of Dickinson’s poetics. Her ability to interweave public attitudes, historical incidents, and personal opinion into a work that, until now, seemed unquestioningly biographical accentuates her value and emphasizes the role she plays in representing the dominant ideology of her day. Chapter III extends this ability to incorporate international historical context into her poetry to the opposite hemisphere by reading her manipulation of diamonds against the shared experiences between two countries in her beloved South America.

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Notes

1. The full title of this work is The Book of Commerce by Land and Sea, Exhibiting its

Connection with Agriculture, the Arts, and Manufactures. To Which are Added a History of Commerce, and a Chronological Table, but from this point forward will be referred to simply as The Book of Commerce by Sea and Land. Also, only the publisher’s name is provided in the work, but it is not clear whether the publisher is in fact the author of all the collected information in the work. Additionally, there is a second edition published in

1850; however, its contents are not available at the present time, but it has the same page length as the first edition, so I’m not sure if there is much difference between the two.

2. The full title of this work is The Encyclopedia of Geography: Comprising a Complete

Description of the Earth, Physical, Statistical, Civil and Political; Exhibiting its Relation to the Heavenly Bodies, its Physical Structure, the Natural History of Each Country, and the Industry, Commerce, Political Institutions, and Civil and Social State of All Nations, referred to simply as The Encyclopedia of Geography from this point forward. This chapter has an amazing amount of information on this region, but what I find ironic is that Ceylon is not on the map, nor is it listed in detail at the beginning summary of islands, yet it is discussed in detail.

3. The full title of this work is Flowers of Literature; for 1804: or Characteristic

Sketches of Human Nature and Modern Manners. To which are added, a General View of

Literature during that Period; Portraits and Biographical Notices of Eminent Literary

Characters, with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, but from this point forward will simply be referred to as Flowers of Literature.

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4. “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –” (Fr236).

5. All definitions are found on the Emily Dickinson Lexicon website (edl.byu.edu) where

“All 82,971 entries of Webster's 1844 dictionary are available under the ‘Webster’ tab.”

6. The full title of this work is Encyclopaedia Britannica: or a Dictionary of Arts,

Sciences, and Miscellaneous Litterature (sic), but from this point forward will simply be referred to as Encyclopaedia Britannica.

7. The full title of this work is Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, During the Years

1835, 36, and 37; Including a Narrative of an Embassy to the Sultan of Muscat and the

King of Siam, but from this point forward will simply be referred to as Narrative of a

Voyage Round the World.

8. The magazine does not have listed the author’s information.

9. The full title of this work is A Popular Treatise on Gems, In Reference to their

Scientific Value: A Guide for the Teacher of Natural Sciences, the Lapidary, Jeweler, and

Amateur—Together with a Description of the Elements of Mineralogy, and All

Ornamental and Architectural Materials, but from this point forward will simply be referred to as A Popular Treatise on Gems.

10. I have not satisfactorily discovered citable documentation regarding this; however, www.waistcoatsdirect.co.uk provides a general overview of the history of changes to the waistcoat over through the years.

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CHAPTER III

“A DIAMOND - OVERTAKE”: DICKINSON AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF WEALTH

In one of the few published articles to explore Emily Dickinson’s use of economic language in her poetry, Vivian Pollak’s “‘That Fine Prosperity’: Economic Metaphors in

Emily Dickinson’s Poetry” (1973), observes that economic metaphors “are an important link between the private experience and the communal nineteenth-century life of which

[Dickinson] was a shrewd observer and oblique critic” (161). What is most intriguing about this language is that it is unremarkable: “Dickinson’s economic vocabulary was the common property of any educated person of her day and, for that matter, of our own”

(163). It is what Dickinson does with this language, however, that is unusual. Dickinson writes about economic subjects with common words and phrases used in uncommon, individual ways. Even language as mundane as the common treatment of financial matters takes on esoteric and ambiguous meaning in the poetry. As an extension of

Pollak’s statement above regarding Dickinson’s ability to combine her personal experience with the language of shared public conceptions, Pollak further suggests this

“counterpoint of public diction and private meaning is enhanced and complicated by the poet’s creation of a personal, exotic currency based on gold and silver and mines and precious jewels” (163-64). Part of this currency, we will see, is based on a metonymical

35 word exchange between country and the precious material it exports, and through the use of new research tools, this branch of Emily Dickinson scholarship can be interpreted in a historical context that is unprecedented in its specificity that is also valuable to the understanding of the world around her.

Of all the gems in her display case, one of the most referenced of the precious jewels is the diamond. Patterson charts Dickinson’s overall gem use in her book detailing Dickinson’s imagery, which determines the diamond to be third-most listed precious substance in her work1 (76). Of her diamond use, Patterson emphasizes its representation as containing high value (84). This common-sense approach to diamonds affords Dickinson the ability to encase easily-recognizable materials in a complex framework. This manipulation of diamond- as-material is representative of its hardness, and “that hardness is also both the product of time…and the quality allowing diamonds to serve as,” what Stephanie Markovits calls in her “Form Things: Looking at Genre through Victorian Diamonds” (2010) article, “repositories of history” (598).

Readers of mid-nineteenth century periodicals would be no strangers to the makeup of diamonds. In the “Something about Diamonds” article in Harper’s New

Monthly Magazine, Vol. 19 (1859), for example, the history of diamonds, their value, how they are cut, and who mines them are all discussed in detail. But what is relevant to the present discussion are the stories contained within and around diamonds. Master

Thomas Nicols, “the first English writer who sought to illuminate the world on the subject of gems” says of the diamond:

It will make men rich and eloquent; it will preserve from thunder and lightning; it will create dreams, keep men chaste…, hinder fascination…,

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stop witchcraft, and make men invisible. If a true diamond be put upon the head of a woman without her knowledge, it will make her in her sleep, if she be faithful to her husband, to cast herself into his embraces; but if she be otherwise, to turn away from him. (466)

The diamond’s ability to contain stories is evident in this example, which also indicates the high value placed on the stone. According to the above account, men in possession of diamonds have the ability to rise above normalcy to achieve a level of superiority that dispels reality. Stories like these would draw even more appeal to the diamond beyond its calculated value.

Much in the same way Markovits describes how diamonds become repositories of history, Patterson states that “the worth of a diamond is ‘the understanding of the time it must take to look for it,’ a correlation of value with scarcity that seems to inform a number of Emily Dickinson’s jewel poems” (85). This amalgamation of value, time, scarcity or rarity adds to the appeal that surrounds diamonds, particularly those stones whose reputations reach infamy. In order to reach such notoriety, those diamonds must be accompanied by their claim to fame, and Markovits would agree. She continues on to say in her article that this reasoning lends to “compressed histories…commonly attach[ing] themselves to diamond tales,” which in turn mimics the compression of carbon into diamond (598). These compressed histories brought more attention to diamonds, especially when the weight of the diamond was already spectacular. Perhaps the two most famous diamonds of this period were the Koh-i-noor with its accursed history and the discovery of The Star of the South.

While historians have written about the significance of these rocks, new, searchable databases containing primary materials contemporary with Emily Dickinson,

37 provide access to information pertinent to creating the connotations of diamonds as they were perceived in her day. For example, the first volume of The Home Circle2 (1855), a journal published monthly covering topics related to religion and literature, describes the

Koh-i-noor, a legendary diamond of immense weight discovered in India, in “The Legend of the Koh-i-noor” article. It recounts the “strange and gloomy superstition…respecting the possession of the Koh-i-noor…which the Hindoos say entails ruin and destruction on every dynasty that possesses it” (260). The actual beginnings of this stone are unknown, but its earliest known history attributes its first possession to being ripped from a Hindu prince and presented to “Aurungzebe, the Emperor of Hindostan” (260). This betrayal of ownership initiated the cycle of ruin to which each subsequent owner succumbed: all that each owner had accomplished met with turmoil and devastation, rendering the Koh-i- noor his only remaining wealth, which in turn was pilfered from him.

From Aurungzebe to Nadir Shah of Persia, from Ahmed Shah Dooranee, the first king of Cabul, to Runjeet Singh, the “Koh-i-noor has been fatal to all its possessors, because they were all men of violence and crime; they ruled lawlessly, and they plundered ruthlessly, and that plundered wealth turned to curses, not to blessings, in their hands” (260). The compressed history of this diamond tale reflects a hardened image of power and destruction that captivated many, and its refashioning into the largest jewel in

Queen Victoria’s crown through British takeover has been credited as a source for the

“increased visibility” of diamonds in Victorian literature (Markovits 594).

Markovits describes how the story of the Koh-i-noor was brought to life in 1851 through the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in England, amplifying the interest

38 surrounding diamonds. She tells us that “Isobel Armstrong has argued that the Crystal

Palace housing the 1851 Great Exhibition ‘was both cause and effect of an extraordinary

[Victorian] self-consciousness about glass’” (qtd. in Markovits 595) and that “gems like the Koh-i-noor—the most famous of the imported/plundered stones and among the

Exhibition’s most popular displays—were cause and effect of a peculiar self- consciousness about diamonds” (595). As noted in Patterson’s book, authors during the

Victorian age increased the amount of jewel references, and diamonds were not left out

(76). For example, the “oevres of Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson…hold more than four times the diamonds of John Milton’s or John Dryden’s, and three times that of

Alexander Pope’s” (qtd. in Markovits). This incorporation of diamonds into prose and poetry signifies the increased attention paid to the stone, providing Dickinson with another tool to manufacture symbolism.

Likewise, The Star of the South, found in Brazil just two years after the 1851

Great Exhibit in July 1853, was a diamond considered to be “very remarkable both for its size and for the perfection of its crystalline form” as described in The Mining

Magazine’s3 (1855) “A New Diamond from Brazil” (370). In comparison, the Star of the

South is estimated to weigh roughly 127 carats after it is cut; the Koh-i-noor “weighs from 120 to 122 carats” placing The Star of the South “among the four or five most precious diamonds known” at the time (370). It was found “by a negress employed in the mines of Bogagen, one of the districts of Mines-Geraes” and is the largest diamond to have come from Brazil (370). If Brazil was not widely known for its diamond production prior to the discovery of The Star of the South, it certainly was thereafter.

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Though The Star of the South does not share the fated past of the Koh-i-noor, it is not without its own history. Based on its natural shape and the appearance of fractures and cavities that “show traces of three or four crystals” and other minerals, it is determined to have “originally belonged to a group of crystals of diamonds,” meaning it came from the lining of geodes “in the midst of certain rocks” yet to be discovered (370).

Connecting this stone of great wealth to a potentially greater wealth not only indicates a desire to seek stones of superior value that could lead to boundless fame, but reiterates the need to attach a history, or story, to diamonds—something Dickinson does not fail to do.

Another important similarity between the Koh-i-noor and The Star of the South is their attachment to place—one cannot learn of these stones without learning of their origins and something of the countries from whence they came. Those countries, India and Brazil, are part of a world geography which charmed Emily Dickinson from her childhood and generated a terrestrial symbolism that is located throughout her poetry.

According to Patterson, “maps and geographical facts were of interest to her not for themselves but as she could use them symbolically to identify and order the more subtle elements of the mind’s world” (141). Not only that, her incorporation of geography was a way to broaden the scope of her meaning and test the boundaries of her understanding of the world around her. “Her Latin American imagery, which appears to be the most carefully and consciously elaborated,” Patterson tells us, “owes its characteristic features to the tales of early Spanish exploration, and Asia, except for the Bible lands, is the domain of exotic luxury” (142). This mixture of history and wealth in Dickinson’s

40 poetry has been of particular interest to scholars, but has been overlooked or downplayed in some of her lesser-known poems.

In a work that analyzes the various aspects of science, exploration of self in relation to the world, and the navigation of spaces in Dickinson’s work, Robin Peel’s

Emily Dickinson and the Hill of Science (2010) states that many “poems from the period of 1855-1865 contain a vocabulary and images that come from a strange mixture of geography, adventure stories, and the speaker’s fascination with treasure and the exotic”

(210-211). This combination reflects Dickinson’s own sense of adventure and willingness to literally think outside the box that is her tiny realm in Amherst and her ability to easily explore the topography of lands seemingly worlds away. Dickinson relied on geography primarily for its “comfortability,” since “it describes the world we see around us, the products that the world produces, the rivers, deserts, mountains, and lakes that are features of the landscapes, and the climate and weather that shapes that landscape” (210-11). In this sense, geography does not skew how we see the world; it merely reports to us what we can see or describes to us its features in a way that is imaginable.

Additionally, her “treatment of exploration and discovery throws some light on the process described earlier, whereby the sciences gave all poets in general, and

Dickinson in particular, images and ideas for fresh metaphor and analogy and offered new perceptions of the world that proved enormously influential” (Peel 211). Hence,

Dickinson did not have to physically travel to the lands in her poems, then, to know what they looked like, nor did she have to have a strong background in it to craft unique poems

41 that referred to it. The language of geography is plain, and as such, Dickinson manipulated that language to intensify its complexity. In a poem described Judith Farr’s

The Passion of Emily Dickinson (1992) as “a love poem—of loss and regret—to a woman she once loved, indeed studied, when both were girls” (141), “Your riches – taught me –

Poverty” (Fr418), a well-known poem addressed and delivered to Sue in a letter, associates “Sue’s wealth…with exotic, torrid regions (Buenos Aires, Peru, India, places she once found described in her school geography)” (Leiter 234). These regions each have a symbolic representation in Dickinson’s poetry, and her metonymical exchange between country and the precious substance it produces proves more than just a shared public understanding of each country’s products: it indicates a deeper knowledge of the historical significance those products have with their respective countries.

For Dickinson, India, and Asia more generally, represents “a remote, mysterious region of fabulous wealth and luxury” (Patterson 157). On two separate occasions the poem references India: “I’m sure ‘tis India – All Day – / To those who look on You –”

(17-18) and “I’m sure it is Golconda – / Beyond my power to deem –” (21-22). India and, specifically, Golconda were known the world over for their diamond mines. In fact, the mines of Golconda “formed the first, and for many years the most important, spot known for the production of diamonds” (qtd. in Farr 142). In this sense, Dickinson is equating Sue with diamonds and the high value they intrinsically contain.

Golconda’s prosperity, however, did not last long for the overproduction of diamonds quickly diminished the supply. The entry for “Diamond” in The New

American Cyclopædia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge (1859) explains that

42 these “mines, celebrated as having produced some of the most valued precious stones in the world, have for some time past been unproductive, and are not now worked” (442).4

Though this is the case, Golconda, even with its lost wealth was also a fortress and prison, and its use in “Your riches – taught me – Poverty” “would have implied misery and deprivation,” describing perfectly the feelings Dickinson had regarding Sue (Farr

142).

One of Dickinson’s textbooks assigned during her studies at Mount Holyoke was

Edward Hitchcock’s Elementary Geology.5 “South America,” Hitchcock writes, “has long been celebrated for its mines of gold, silver, platinum, and diamonds” (323).

Because of this early lesson, like Asia, it stood for “incalculable wealth” in her poetry, but it also signified “unattainable desire” (Patterson 143). The first stanza of “Your riches – taught me – Poverty” indicates the value Dickinson placed on Sue; prior to meeting her, Dickinson thought herself “a Millionaire” (2), yet Sue’s wealth was as

“broad as Buenos Ayre” (4). Unfortunately for Dickinson, Sue “drifted” her

“Dominions” to “A Different Peru” (5-6), though Dickinson would have “esteemed all

Poverty / For life’s estate with [Sue]” (7-8). These lines show how she uses regional geography again to discuss both great wealth and the loss of that wealth, and specific

Latin American countries come to have their own individual symbolism associated with wealth. For example, Peru, which will be discussed in more detail below, represents power and wealth, and the country that categorically represents diamonds for Dickinson is Brazil.

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According to Patterson, throughout “Emily’s poetic career Brazil would be as reasonable a symbol of inestimable wealth as Golconda at an earlier period or Kimberly at a later” (144); Pollak suggests Brazil is Dickinson’s “symbol for the rare, the exotic, the costly” (169). Both refer to “I asked no other thing –” (Fr687) as the pivotal example of this symbolism. This poem demonstrates an offer to exchange a life for wealth, but the offer is denied. For Patterson, “God figures as ‘the Mighty Merchant’” and Dickinson

“names the symbolic ‘Brazil’ as her heart’s desire and offers ‘Being’ as the purchase price” (144). Pollak believes Dickinson does more than that: “This is perhaps her harshest, and sliest, portrayal of God’s failure to account satisfactorily to man” (169).

Though the mark of religion is quite clear in this poem, Markovits goes beyond the religious implications found within by suggesting that it is “perhaps the most lyric reflection on diamonds” (603).

Markovits identifies how the format of the poem reflects the “diamond’s octahedral and symmetrical shape” with its eight lines, and that her “fractured utterances even resemble facets” of diamonds (603). In keeping with this idea of poem-as-diamond, using the merchant as a broker, instead of a “more abstract paternal authority like God, reminds us that commodities—be they jewels, women, or lyrics—are at stake” (603).

This reading could find the speaker, presumably a woman, frustrated at the thought that offering her female being, and not just man in general, is not worthy of the item she seeks. Furthermore, Markovits notes how the “extraordinary metonymical substitution of location (Brazil) for thing (diamond) becomes not just method but also subject of the verse” (603). This kind of exchange between country and representative export and the

44 wealth that comes from it illustrates Dickinson’s interest in economic interactions, especially at the macro level.

Pollak tells us that “economic metaphor, then, serves primarily to anchor the romantic extravagance of Dickinson’s sensibility and the abstraction of her poetic method to the material facts of ordinary life” (171). Dickinson’s life was anything but ordinary, and her access to documents that extended her location across coastal waters afforded her the creative capacity to manipulate economic metaphors to allude to more than just personal happenings. They can apply to factual data found within reality and the material that is associated with it. We will see that in “Reverse cannot befall” (Fr 565) Dickinson uses economic language not as a metaphor for some aspect of her life, but, together with the use of diamonds, as a means to celebrate a less-powerful, though self-sufficient, country’s ability to attain greater power beyond its own borders.

Reverse cannot befall That fine Prosperity Whose Sources are interior – As soon – Adversity

A Diamond – overtake 5 In far – Bolivian Ground Misfortune hath no implement Could mar it – if it found –

Much of the discussion regarding this poem emphasizes the personal lesson to be gained. For Pollak, the “economic metaphor describes the significance, to the autonomous soul, of emblematic wealth” (178), and Patterson maintains the poem

“implies a proud self-sufficiency” (144). In her article on “Emily Dickinson and Class,”

Betsy Errkila asserts this is one of Dickinson’s poems that identifies her concern over her

45 and her family’s wealth, especially in light of “the increasing valuation placed on money and material possessions as opposed to ascribed status in the new marketplace economy”

(16). Rather than seeking material gain, time and time again “Dickinson’s poems assert the ultimate and real value of an interior, mental, and spiritual economy against the instability of the new marketplace economy of wages, prices, contracts, merchants, securities, stocks, and reversals” (Erkkila 17). For Erkkila, the first three lines equates to

“setting an inner ‘Prosperity’ against the ‘Adversity’ and ‘Misfortune’ of an international marketplace dependent on the happenings ‘In far – Bolivian Ground –’” (17).

All of these interpretations place the subjective value above the objective or external value imposed by others. And though this is a reasonable explanation for the economic language in the poem, none so far has considered this language in relation to

Dickinson’s geography and what the inclusion of diamonds into the poem could mean.

Dickinson clearly was interested in geology and other sciences, and Paul Guiles suggests in his article, “‘The Earth reversed her Hemispheres’: Dickinson’s Global Antipodality,” that we should “consider ways in which Dickinson appropriates various scientific theories of her era to reorient her work within a more antipodean framework, thereby situating her poetry self-consciously between the local and the global” (8). Dickinson takes the connotations of diamonds as they have reached her locally, discovers a way to exchange those connotations with a global understanding, and uses the combination as a means to discuss the historical reversal of value and power between two countries in her beloved South America: Peru and Bolivia.

“Reverse cannot befall / That fine Prosperity / Whose Sources are interior –”

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Peru is a favored landmark in Dickinson’s poetry, for it has come to represent various symbols. Patterson tells us that “purple is her favorite sunset color,” and “Peru is purple—no doubt alliteratively, but also because it is, above all others, her western land,” an intersection of setting sun and location (142). Additionally, “Peru is purple because it is her royal color, evoking the classic tradition of royal purple and signifying power—the power of emperors, queens, great conquistadores, great wealth. And of course Peru is wealth” (142). This power and wealth has shared an important role in the history of Peru and the land it contained.

A popular historical reference on Peru was William H. Prescott’s History of the

Conquest of Peru. Prescott (1796-1859), was a Massachusetts-born historian whose works on Mexico, Peru, and Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic awarded him several prestigious honors from such organizations as the Massachusetts Historical Society, the

Royal Academy of History, Madrid, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the London Royal Society of Literature, according to friend and fellow historian George

Ticknor in Life of William Hickling Prescott (1882) (436). Equally remarkable was

Prescott’s attention to detail and work ethic despite an injury to his left eye that was a

“deep paralysis of the retina” for which nothing could be done (19).

In his History of the Conquest of Peru, Prescott details the rich history of the

Incas, the discovery of Peru and its successful takeover, the war for independence, and the aftermath of developing into its own nation. When describing the geography of Peru and the “hills of inconsiderable magnitude,” he says they are the “Cordillera of the

Andes, or ‘copper mountains’ as termed by the natives, though they might with more

47 reason have been called ‘mountains of gold’” (5). The natives used gold and other precious resources from everyday items to offerings to princes and the gods. The amount of gold in plain sight was almost staggering; however, Prescott reminds us that “the

Peruvian mountains teemed with gold; [and] that the natives understood the art of working the mines, to a considerable extent” (31). The natives also understood the uniqueness of gold and that it was precious and valuable, and ever since the discovery of

Peru, non-natives knew it of the Peruvian gold, as well.

Not only was Peru rich in resources, it was also rich in size. At the time of the

Spanish conquest, the territory known as the Peruvian Empire spanned “along the Pacific from about the second degree north to the thirty-seventh degree of south latitude; a line, also, which describes the western boundaries of the modern republics of Ecuador, Peru,

Bolivia, and Chili” (Prescott 4). Encompassing so much land mass carries with it a higher level of power and the wealth that is associated with this region only adds to that power. Dickinson’s understanding of the history of Peru is evident in the symbolism associated with it, and from the above accounts regarding the wealth and power inherent in Peru, it is no wonder that that symbolism made its way into her work.

The geographical aspect of such power diminished slightly as each country eventually attained autonomy from the empire of Peru once Peru gained its independence from Spain. In Reverend Alexander Mackay’s Manual of Modern Geography6, a brief account of how Peru and, subsequently, Bolivia attained that independence from Spain is provided:

Bolivia, under the name Upper Peru, formed part of the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, till, on the subversion of Spanish authority, it achieved,

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with Peru proper, its independence. Soon afterwards it separated from the latter country, and became an independent republic, assuming the name Bolivia, in honour of its industrious liberator, General Bolivar, who in 1826 drew up its first constitution. (661)

The entry for “Bolivia” in Edwin Williams’ A Comprehensive System of Modern

Geography and History explains further that Bolivia “was erected into an independent state, by the declaration of the citizens, August 5, 1825, ….The district formerly belonged to Peru, but was detached from that country in 1778, and annexed to the Viceroyalty of

Buenos Ayres” (203). This brief transference of ownership did nothing to reduce the breadth of Peru’s reputation for being a powerful nation; though, according to Williams, the association between Peru and “the idea of prodigious wealth” has “created an interest” that far outweighs Peru’s “real importance” (201).

One could reasonably assume that the wealth in precious gems and metals found within Peru was also found within Bolivia, thereby raising Bolivia to the same kind of economic power of Peru; however, that was not the case. Bolivia’s geographic location and makeup prevented it from producing the kind of goods as Peru, which in turn limited its foreign trade: “commerce is greatly restricted by the physical character of the country—stupendous mountain-chains and an arid desert separating the productive portion of the country from the Pacific, and 2000 miles of river navigation from the

Atlantic, seaboard” (Mackay 661). Not only that, Bolivia is landlocked, surrounded by

Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay, proving economic growth especially difficult.

Long before its independence, though, the inhabitants of the area later known as

Bolivia knew they had access to their own source of wealth: silver. According to

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Mackay’s Manual of Modern Geography, “The silver [there] was accidentally discovered by an Indian, upwards of 300 years ago. Potosi, at the height of its prosperity—about the year 1680—is said to have contained 150,000 inhabitants, and its miners have yielded about 3,000,000,000 dols. annually” (659). In the early nineteenth century, Bolivia soared in recognition for its production of silver and became “the most important mining country in South America,” even though “many of the mines [became] exhausted or filled with water, and comparatively few of them are now worked with advantage” due to overproduction and limited access (660). It is the recognition for this original prosperity that draws Emily Dickinson to form a text that provides some of her best commentary on interior worth.

The first three lines of this poem, “Reverse cannot befall / That fine Prosperity /

Whose Sources are interior –,” is offered as a hypothesis concerning the earned capital of

Peru and Bolivia. According to Noah Webster’s 1844 American Dictionary of the English

Language7, when “reverse” is used as a verb, it can mean to “turn to the contrary; as, to reverse the scene,” or to “put each in the place of the other; as, to reverse distinctions of good and evil.” As a noun, however, it means a change “for the worse; misfortune.”

Taken together with “befall”—a transitive verb that indicates an ill that can happen to its direct object—these lines tell us that no misfortune can take away Bolivia’s wealth because of how much it has earned.

“Prosperity” in this context signifies an advance “or gain in any thing good or desirable.” This form of the definition is logical, especially if we assume “Sources” to be a shortened form of “resources,” representing Bolivia’s ability to find its own sources of

50 wealth. Thus, Erkkila’s previous assertion that these lines caution against the international marketplace is validated. An extension of this notion is that nothing can go wrong for a country whose sources of revenue are found in the earth; even though silver is not worth as much as gold, because of the shear amount mined in Bolivia, it is considered as wealthy as Peru. Therefore, no matter what resources are mined from the earth, so long as a country is taking advantage of those resources, no misfortune can reverse that wealth. Additionally, the second definition of “interior” helps to strengthen the association of an over-arching commentary on Bolivia and Peru: “inland; remote from the limits, frontier, or shore; as, the interior parts of a country, state or kingdom.” Even though Bolivia is landlocked, because it has its own resources, it still sees globally- acknowledged wealth.

“As soon – Adversity –”

Most scholars associate this poem and its references with wealth, but another reasonable correlation between Peru and Bolivia is power. It was mentioned above that

Peru represents power in Dickinson’s poetry; however powerful Peru is, at one time Peru did not have power enough to protect itself from itself. In the early 1830s, Peru found itself in the midst of a civil war with rebels at odds with the government. William Ogden

Niles’ Niles’ Weekly Register8 provides insight into the parties involved in the conflict in its “Formation of a New Republic in S. America” article: “The bloody war which has been for some time going on in Peru, between the partizans of Orbigozo, the regularly constituted chief of the government, and Salaverry the commander of the rebels” (388).

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The conflict between these two became more than what the Peruvian government could handle on their own, so they enlisted the aid of a neighboring country.

This momentary weakness in the shield of Peru’s authority is exactly the challenge to prosperity Dickinson was referring to. The line “As soon – Adversity –” must reference this conflict, for the definition of “Adversity” is an “event, or series of events, which oppose success or desire; misfortune; calamity; affliction; distress; state of happiness.” All the interpretations of this definition point to a situation that has no desired outcome. For the Peruvian government, they could not continue in their present condition because it would lead to the rebels wining. On the other hand, swallowing their pride and seeking aid would admit they are not as strong and powerful as they would have others believe. The lesser of the two evils was looking to Bolivia for help.

“A Diamond – overtake – / In far – Bolivian ground –”

Emily Dickinson’s use of diamond here is another metonymical exchange, much like we saw above in “Your riches – taught me – Poverty.” Previously we have seen how she uses Brazil to stand for diamonds, but in this particular poem, diamond is not meant to represent Brazil, nor is it supposed to signify diamonds actually being found in

Bolivian mines. “A Diamond” in this case could refer, here, to “Andres Santa Cruz, the captain general and president of Bolivia” (Niles 388). Here, Mackay offers a succinct summary of what transpired once Santa Cruz and his troops stepped in:

In 1836, Peru, harassed by contending factions, solicited the aid of Santa Cruz, president of Bolivia, who came with an army and succeeded, after a series of sanguinary actions, in tranquilizing the country; whereupon a confederation was formed, composed of North Peru, South Peru, and Bolivia—Santa Cruz being named supreme Protector. (358)

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The key word that sets off this exchange is “overtake.” Santa Cruz accepted the challenge of fighting someone else’s battle, and succeeded in conquering their combined foe. Because of his ability to overtake the opposition and win, his power overtook Peru.

From this view, Santa Cruz’s power reached Peru from “far – Bolivian ground –.” But his increased authority was not the only benefit of his participation in saving Peru.

According to the article Niles, “The division of Peru into two states, the southernmost of which is placed entirely under the protection of Bolivia, will doubtless enable the government of the latter to arrange its commercial affairs more satisfactorily than heretofore” (388). Santa Cruz’s elevation in power also brought with it the potential to elevate Bolivia’s financial state.

“Misfortune hath no implement / Could mar it – if it found –”

The last section of this poem carries with it the third reference to the negative side of fortune, proving the importance of her presence. The initial “it” in the last line of this poem refers back to “diamond,” thereby continuing the diamond analogy throughout this final couplet of the poem. It is well known that the only material strong enough to scratch or “mar” the surface of diamond is diamond itself. These lines contribute to the strength and power that Bolivia, by way of Santa Cruz, has now secured for itself.

Fortune, whether positive or negative, is a powerful force that influences all she encounters. Fortune also uses whatever resources are available to her, inclusive of

“implements” or instruments to do her bidding. The fact that there is no instrument currently at her disposal that could injure the surface of the diamond in the poem—Santa

Cruz—nor one that could “mar” this diamond if she found an instrument presumed to be

53 strong enough proves that Bolivia’s power is now stronger than one of the greatest forces in the known universe.

“Reverse cannot befall” is similar to the poem that begins “I ask no other thing –” in that its eight lines mirror the octahedral shape of diamonds and the entire focus of the text is an exchange. But the exchange is not quite the same. Brazil, as we have seen, is used in place of diamonds, whereas in this particular poem, diamonds do not represent

Brazil. The use of diamond here is to represent a person of great wealth. This gem is far too precious to be associated with anyone who is less than spectacular, and the repeated references to misfortune provide another recognizable context to compare the power linked to this diamond, as well.

Stephanie Markovits shares with us that “history…can be told by ‘looking fixedly at the Thing, and first of all, and beyond all, endeavoring to see it, and fashion a living

Picture of it’” (qtd. in Markovits 599). And Dickinson did just that through diamonds.

She capitalized on the inflated interest of diamonds in the nineteenth century and uses that interest to fashion her own living picture of the shared history between Peru and

Bolivia. After determining that diamonds are themselves powerful and valuable, and not just representations of power and wealth, diamond-as-thing becomes the tool to move her symbolism beyond her personal world to reach clear across the hemisphere. Furthermore, her use of diamond in the midst of this abridged version of the happenings between these two countries is another example of diamonds being repositories of history. The diamond in this tale is meant to store the history between Bolivia and Peru, and whether Dickinson

54 was aware of it or not, her fitting this poem with a diamond was exactly what was needed to render the story contained within the poem invaluable.

Just as Chapter II connects the observable struggle Dickinson writes between the

Malay and the Earl to a greater understanding of the contemporary views of worth regarding the possession of precious items, Chapter III also discusses this exchange in terms of power and wealth based on the possession of precious materials. Within that view of worth, Chapter II contains a meditation on the pearl industry in the Indian Ocean which was largely shaped by racial prejudice. Chapter III provides its own meditation, this time on the appeal of diamonds in the mid-nineteenth century and demonstrates how

Dickinson potentially uses that to create a symbolic diamond in Santa Cruz. This also uncovers how the value of diamonds, both real and symbolic, can disrupt the established order of wealth and power. Like Chapters II and III, Chapter IV takes the complicated view of worth that often surrounds war and interprets how Dickinson works with gold and silver, this time not in relation to struggles overseas, but in relation to the ramifications of the American Civil War.

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Notes

1. Pearls are referenced 31 times in her poetry, followed by amber at 23 times. Although amber is not a stone, it, along with pearls, is considered a precious organic substance.

2. The full title of this work is The Home Circle: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to

Religion and Literature.

3. The full title of this work is The Mining Magazine: Devoted to Mines, Mining

Operations, Metallurgy, Etc. Etc.

4. A more recent account of Golconda’s diamond history can be found in Omar Khalidi’s

Romance of the Golconda Diamonds (1999).

5. For a complete list of books and other periodicals found in the Dickinson household and works she likely read based off references in her writings, see Jack Capps’ Emily

Dickinson’s Reading 1836-1886.

6. The full title of this work is Manual of Modern Geography: Mathematical, Physical, and Political on a New Plan Embracing a Complete Development of the River Systems of the Globe.

7. From this point forward, all definitions will be from this source unless otherwise noted.

8. The full title of this work is Niles’ Weekly Register, containing Political, Historical, Geographical, Scientifical, Statistical, Economical and Biographical Documents, Essays and Facts, together with Notices of the Arts and Manufactures and a Record of the Events of the Times.

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CHAPTER IV

“WITH GOLD AND SILVER PAIN”: DICKINSON AND THE SPOILS OF WAR

Not surprisingly, resonances from the Civil War found their way into Emily

Dickinson’s poetry most prominently during the four year period of the war, 1861-1865, though they continued to permeate her work long after, and rightly so: Wendy Martin reminds us in The Cambridge Introduction to Emily Dickinson, that this “was the bloodiest era America had seen yet” due to the sudden “clashes between individual and society, agrarian and industrial, black and white, and North and South” that “all came to a head” (34). Consequently, this was considered to be “the most prolific time of Emily

Dickinson’s writing,” for nearly half of her work was written during this period (34). As a result, the myriad conflicts sparking to life all around her inspired numerous innovative metaphor and symbolism that segued into new avenues of poetic inquiry through which

Dickinson expressed her own struggle to understand the changes that were occurring.

For example, John Shoptaw tells us in his 2010 article, “Dickinson’s Civil War Poetics: from the Enrollment Act to the Lincoln Assassination,” that Dickinson’s Civil War poetry “slip[s] between competitive defiance and sympathetic identification, hostility, envy, and admiration” (1-2). This fluctuating range of emotions was not merely a

57 reaction to the conflicts central to the war itself, but to the economic fallout from the war, as well.

According to her review essay, “Public Selves and Private Spheres: Studies of

Emily Dickinson and the Civil War, 1984-2007,” Faith Barrett explains how “much of recent scholarship on Dickinson’s response to the war has a strong investment in examining Dickinson’s political and ideological allegiances, her engagement with discourses from the nineteenth-century public sphere” (101). One such discourse pertains to the subject of value—of life, of liberty, of sustainability—and at what cost those values should be defended. This is reflected in a significant portion of Dickinson’s Civil War poetry which questions the balance between life and liberty and for whom. These questions often ask whether the value of the future of one life is worth the present cost of another life; will that cost lead to an even greater sacrifice, and if so, who should be the one to bear it?

Integral to answering these questions is the controversy of how a war of this size is, or should be, funded. The concern over that financial burden was something that

Dickinson expresses in her poetry through the obvious, yet often subtle, references to currency. In “A Plated Life – diversified” (Fr864), Dickinson uses evaluative language charged with references to materials used in weaponry as a means to reveal the power struggles evident in war, and in “Luck is not chance –” (Fr1360) she deals directly with her feelings towards the dire state of the financial institution in America after the war.

Included in these are explicit and strongly indicated references to gold and silver, both of which are used in monetary exchanges. Through an examination of the context of war

58 surrounding these two poems, especially in relation to two of her most popular poems written during this period—“It feels a shame to be Alive –” (Fr524) and “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –” (Fr764)— it becomes evident that “A Plated Life – diversified” and “Luck is not chance –” are likewise heavily influenced by Dickinson’s reaction to the

American Civil War and should, therefore, be recognized as such.

For Dickinson, the Civil War came just after a pivotal transition in her life. Shira

Wolosky shares with us in “Public and Private in Dickinson’s War Poetry” that the “years immediately preceding the war, when the possibility and rhetoric of conflict ominously intensified, were also the years which Thomas Johnson identifies with ‘the rising flood of her talent,’ as well as with the beginning of her reclusive practices” (107). It would seem

Dickinson’s reclusion was not just a way to remove herself from public view, but also a way to shut out the horrors of the war affecting so many loved ones around her.

According to Shoptaw, however, the “war, to be sure, reflected Dickinson’s inner turmoils and struggles (including her struggle to become a memorable poet), but it also threatened to engulf and trivialize her poetics of suffering and experience” (1). In this sense, what matters the suffering of one woman when thousands of lives are lost on the battlefields? Overcoming this subjective conflict meant sharing “with her wider culture the imperative to make sense of suffering, disorder, disruption, through reference to coherent, overarching, redemptive patterns” (Wolosky 117).

One of these overarching patterns surrounding the war was death, as it affected the lives of so many. According to Faith Barrett, Dickinson provides “both skeptical commentary on the war and expressions of concern or grief about friends who are in peril

59 or who have lost their lives” in a way that “echo[es] popular depictions of soldiers as

Christian heroes or of young soldiers rejoining their dead mothers in the afterlife”

(“Drums” 107). For Dickinson, the war would take the life of a dear friend, Frazer

Stearns, which she wrote about on more than one occasion. Eliza Richards informs us in her article, “‘How News Must Feel When Traveling’: Dickinson and Civil War Media,” that when “Frazer Stearns, the son of the President of Amherst College and adjutant in the 21st Massachusetts regiment, was killed, she learned and passed on the details of his death ‘by minie ball’ at Newborn, North Carolina” in a letter addressed to her Norcross cousins (163).

The grief she felt over his loss inspired her to produce one of her most memorable poems, an elegy meant for Stearns, but also a poem representative of all mourners’ guilt:

It feels a shame to be Alive – When Men so brave – are dead – One envies the Distinguished Dust – Permitted – such a Head –

The Stone – that tells defending Whom 5 This Spartan put away What little of him we – possessed In Pawn for Liberty –

The price is great – Sublimely paid – Do we deserve – a Thing – 10 That lives – like Dollars – must be piled Before we may obtain?

Are we that wait – sufficient worth – That such Enormous Pearl As life – dissolved be – for Us – 15 In Battle’s – horrid Bowl?

It may be – a Renown to live – I think the Men who die –

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Those unsustained – Saviors – Present Divinity – (Fr524) At the core of this poem is the uncertainty that the value of liberty is worth the cost of lives. The first stanza begins with the “shame” of knowing men braver than the speaker are risking and losing their lives. In her 2006 article, “‘Lives – like Dollars’: Emily

Dickinson and the Poetics of Witness,” Cynthia Hogue reads this shame not as

“survivor’s guilt” or “an internalized sense of being wrong, of having to survive survival…but a more public or societal dishonor” (43). She extends this idea even further by explaining that this societal dishonor is “not a personal struggle but a collective responsibility implied in the poem’s central question: ‘Do we deserve – a Thing – / That lives – like Dollars – must be piled / Before we may obtain’” (43). The unanswered question invokes an image of callous devastation as lives are lost and used as financial gain, and that correlation between lives lost for profit is something Dickinson references repeatedly in her Civil War poems.

Not only are lives physically lost, but they are also deprived their individuality.

The second stanza carries over the image of the soldier’s grave, but “The Stone” that identifies this soldier does not reference his name; rather, it only recognizes on whose side of the war he fought. Stripping “This Spartan” of his personal identity and replacing it with a Union or Confederate persona likens him to a “Pawn for Liberty,” an object of little worth meant to sacrifice itself in exchange for the longevity of a more important piece. Given this view that the quality of lives is also evaluated, Hogue’s assessment of

Dickinson’s use of “the language of commerce to structure a question that makes an implicit cost-benefit analysis assessing the value of sacrifice,” explains how that language

61 raises the question of worth “to an ideal” (44). But she warns that the “focus on the value of lives lost defending an ideal neglects the horrific conditions of slavery” for the poem does not reference the dollar amount applied to slaves’ lives, only soldiers’ lives piling on the battlefield (44).

A reason for this distraction could be that “Dickinson’s poetic vision was profoundly shaped by the visual structure of modern warfare,” as Renee Bergland tells us in “The Eagle’s Eye: Dickinson’s View of Battle” (134). She explains how the Civil War was “the first great war of the industrial age, when technological innovation both completely changed the scale of destruction and made the carnage visible in a new way,” particularly through the systematic use of “aerial surveillance technology” that provided a

“view from above” and graphic battlefield photography (138). In Eliza Richards’ article,

“‘Death’s Surprise, Stamped Visible’: Emily Dickinson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and

Civil War Photography,” she provides information on Mathew Brady, whose

“photographic corps captured some of the earliest images ever recorded of battlefield death,” which he sold to galleries, direct to the general public, and to newspapers and magazines (13-14). These images helped to create a unified battle image more accurate than any article could hope to craft, and the line “That lives – like Dollars – must be piled,” indicates Dickinson had some familiarity with Brady’s work.

This connection between image and location is important to the understanding of how influential the Civil War was on Dickinson’s poetry. Bergland states that

“contemporary visual theory describes the visual as something that is always contingent on its historical and cultural context” (138). In this instance, battle photographs depicted

62 visually and quite plainly the political divide within the nation, right down to the attire and even the weapons used by the soldiers. These pictures demonstrated the sheer number of losses that each side incurred. Because of this, witnesses of these battle images from both sides of the war gained a keen sense of its volatile atmosphere without being physically near. Not being physically near herself, Bergland suggests “Dickinson’s

Civil War poems represent the complex experience of abstracted visual perception with concise clarity that grows out of her acute awareness of her own particular, and particularly disembodied, location in history” (138).

Not only do her poems indicate her location in history, they also point to her knowledge of Civil War weaponry. In the letter to her Norcross cousins referenced above, Dickinson admits she has read of “minie balls” (qtd. in Martin). This ball, as described in The United States Journal of Homœopathy (1861), was invented by French officer Charles Claude-Etienne Minié, and “consists of an elongated cylinder, conical in front and hollow behind, and fitted with a cap of thin iron, which, by filling thick grooves of the barrel as the ball is forced through, gives to the latter a precision and range of flight” not previously seen in “the science of gunnery” (448). Not only was the range of flight never before seen, nor were the wounds created by these projectiles: “The gun-shot wounds that are produced by the Minie balls are so terrible that, according to the accounts of the coroner of St. Louis, all those persons who have been wounded by them either died or been obliged to submit to amputation and its consequences” (448). Though the

“technology takes on a new, horribly personal meaning when it is attached to the death of

63 a friend,” as Martin suggests, little has been said regarding Dickinson’s interest in the weapons used during the war (35).

This is not the only instance in which Dickinson explicitly refers to weapons. In

“My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –” (Fr764), one of Dickinson’s “most haunting, enigmatic, and debated poems” (Leiter 145), the speaker relays the details of her life as if she were the rifle belonging to a master:

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – In Corners – till a Day The Owner passed – identified – And carried Me away –

And now We roam in Sovreign Woods – 5 And now We hunt the Doe – And every time I speak for Him The Mountains straight reply –

And do I smile, such cordial light Opon the Valley glow – 10 It is as a Vesuvian face Had let it’s pleasure through –

And when at Night – Our good Day done – I guard My Master’s Head – ‘Tis better than the Eider Duck’s 15 Deep Pillow – to have shared –

To foe of His – I’m deadly foe- None stir the second time – In whom I lay a Yellow Eye – Or an emphatic Thumb – 20

Though I than He – may longer live He longer must – than I – For I have but the power to kill, Without – the power to die –

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The poem begins with a speaker who is unimportant, though ready to be used while cast aside until the master identifies a need for her. Once that need arises, the gun blissfully and dutifully responds to her destructive role. In the end, this gun recognizes that she cannot live in the same sense as her master has lived—she has but one purpose in her

“power to kill,” yet her master can define and redefine his own purpose in life—but where she is triumphant is that she exists “Without – the power to die –.”

According to Sharon Leiter, this poem “has come to be viewed as the great analytic challenge for Dickinson scholars attempting to prove their mettle” (145). For some, the poem is representative of a give-and-take love relationship. For example, in

The Passion of Emily Dickinson, Judith Farr categorizes this poem as belonging to the list of Dickinson’s work that was intended for a man she refers to as Master (241-244). For

Cristanne Miller, this poem is “an adolescent fantasy about coming of age that breaks down before what should be its happy conclusion—powerful adulthood—revealing the flaw in its initial fiction but perhaps also the extreme limitation the speaker feels in her life choices” (qtd. Leiter). Along with the coming of age reading, still others view this as a metaphor for rage, a religious allegory, or even a poem about Dickinson herself and

“the transformation of language” (147).

As we can see from this review of the prominent scholarship discussing this poem, the relationship between Dickinson and her assumed knowledge of how weapons function has yet to be explored in non-biographical terms. The language she uses here is vague enough not to warrant such an isolated investigation; however, it is the content of the poem that contributes to this reading of the functionality, or purpose, of weapons in a

65 greater context like that of war. The speaker’s function is to be used by the master when the master deems fit. In this particular moment, the gun kills a doe on a hunting trip, which seems much more innocent than killing another human being during the pursuit of sovereignty. The importance of location combined with function, then, attributes to the value of the killing power of weapons. Dickinson’s own location could have contributed to her understanding of how weapons work: Amherst is fewer than thirty miles north of

Springfield. With her proximity to the Springfield Armory that became the unrivaled provider of weapons for the North during the war, there was no escaping the killing power of weapons, and that reminder could have helped to create a poem that deals directly with the specific instruments of death.

In “Yankee Industry, Union Muscle,” an article published in 2002 that details the significance of the Union having access to an efficient armory rather than outsourcing for weapons like the Confederacy, Eric Ethier describes how the armory became so successful in the manufacture of weapons. He states that within a year of the start of the war, “Springfield Armory established an unmatched ability to apply the concept of

‘interchangeability’—producing uniform parts that fit any rifle stock—on a massive scale and in a timely manner” (16). Not only were the products impeccable, so were the numbers of weapons produced. The 1862 Minority Report from the House of

Representatives committee overseeing the Springfield Armory becoming the new national armory details its output: “Instead of 10,000 guns a year, it now manufactures more in a single month; and before existing appropriations will have been exhausted it will attain to the production of 20,000 guns per month, or 240,000 per year” (169). This

66 heightened output and increased need for artillery kept Massachusetts in the limelight, which had to have influenced Dickinson who was fewer than thirty miles away.

With the amount of pieces required to assemble a functioning musket, it is no wonder the Armory’s production was newsworthy. In an article discussing infantry arms manufactured there, the components of muskets is provided: “Including the bayonet, ramrod, and other appendages, the number of pieces belonging to the musket are 84 in number, 26 of which are steel, 2 of wood, and the remainder of iron” (“Army” 28). What is important to the present discussion is not the number of components, but the materials used in them. A method of design and ornamentation employed with iron and steel, called damaskeening, was frequently applied to gun barrels.

According to the Chamber’s Encyclopædia1, “damaskeening” is “the art of producing upon ordinary steel certain ornamental appearances resembling those observed on the famous Damascus blades” (407). Damascus blades boasted beautiful designs

“formed by a tissue of dark lines on a light ground, or light lines upon a dark ground, and occasionally by the inlaying of gold on the steel-blue ground” (407). In fact, silver and gold were often “inlaid in the higher-class of sword-blades and other articles,” like gun barrels. In a first-person account witnessing the implementation of damaskeening to gun barrels, professor of metallurgy John Percy states that he does “not remember to have anywhere seen more beautiful effects of this kind” (860).

In Dickinson’s “A Plated Life – diversified” (Fr864), the irony of the beauty of these metals and their power to kill can be read as another poem that focuses on the function of weapons and the value of that killing power:

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A Plated Life – diversified With Gold and Silver Pain To Prove the presence of the Ore In Particles – ’tis when

A Value struggle – it exist – 5 A Power – will proclaim Although Annihilation pile Whole Chaoses on Him –

The first stanza explores the idea of a sheltered life, one that has been covered with temporary comforts that in one action has be “diversified” or differentiated. This could be a fragile existence loosely held together, yet quickly shattered, forced to spread out among its multiple fractures as it has been diversified through “Gold and Silver Pain.”

Weapons used on the battlefield ranged from daggers, to swords, to guns, and any version of weapon can be comprised of gold and silver. The metonymy of gold and silver allows one’s imagination to supply whichever version of artillery it deems fit to cause such pain.

Because the exterior of this life was so easily shattered, impurities must lie within.

Like with iron, any existence of other metals, such as ore, weakens it. To attain iron in its pure state, it must be extracted, or smelted, from its ores; to determine its purity, its strength is tested (Percy 1-3). In a metallurgical reading, proving “the presence of the

Ore” can imply a life that is inferior to the one wielding the weapon. Searching for this ore is a way to prove the value of this life is not pure. Additionally, a reading conscious of war could view each side, the North and the South, as valuing its position as if it were gold and silver, respectively. The pain they each inflict is to prove the opposition is unworthy; hidden beneath its beautiful, valuable opinion is the ugly, base, ore. With either reading, a result of this struggle over which side is more valuable—“A Value

68 struggle – it exist –”—one will become the victor, even though the pursuit of this victory results in “Whole Chaoses” of “Annihilation” piling up on the battlefield.

Along with her awareness of weaponry, Dickinson’s Civil War poems also demonstrate her investment in the economic crisis of her day, and her attention to the role gold and silver played in the outcome of the war found its way into another of her poems.

That role was currency and how it was used during the war for the exchange of goods and services. Barrett explains that “the newspapers and magazines the Dickinson family subscribed to offered a wealth of information about the war’s economic consequences in

1862 and 1863,” editorials that contained “Lincoln’s measures for funding the war effort and that listed revenues and debts, gains and losses for both the Union and the

Confederacy” (“Drums” 117). As we shall see, that measure and her reaction to the maturation of the legal tender of the United States can be read in Dickinson’s “Luck is not chance –” (Fr1360).

Lincoln’s measures for funding the war had drastic and lasting effects on the financial institution. One of the earliest measures was the Demand Notes Act of 1861.

William A. Bomberger and Gail E. Makinen tell us in their 2010 research article,

“Seigniorage, Legal Tender, and the Demand Notes of 1861,” that the financing of the

Civil War, through the Demand Notes Act of 1861, “authoriz[ed] the government to borrow $250 million. Of this sum, the Treasury could issue $50 million in non-interest- bearing notes, payable on demand in gold. The 1861 Notes were, then, an emergency measure to furnish a depleted Treasury with currency until the authorized loans could be floated to bridge the rapidly widening gap between expenditures and tax receipts” (917).

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An unforeseen issue arose, however, from the fact that there existed “an extended period during which two paper currencies with different properties circulated side by side both with each other and with gold coin” (916). This second paper currency was the result of the Legal Tender Act of 1862. This act “provided for the issue of fiat money, commonly known as greenbacks, not convertible into specie of a fixed rate. Market forces determined the value of the greenback (paper) dollar relative to gold and foreign currencies in a system of floating and flexible exchange rates” (“Money Policy” 512).

The idea of the greenback in theory was to make easier the exchange of goods and services while the government took care to find ways to increase its finances. In 1875,

Samuel Thayer Spear points out in his evaluation of the recent history of the legal tender acts in his book, The Legal Tender Acts2, that “the object [of the greenback] was to put upon the market a bond at a cheaper rate of interest; not only did this object, for the most part, fail of success, but the notes themselves suffered a rapid and great depreciation, as shown by the rise of the gold premium and a corresponding inflation of prices” (70). He continues on to say that this depreciation in value and inflation of prices “thus subject[ed] the Government to a large increase in the cost of war material, and thereby add[ed] to the expenses of the war besides deranging the whole business operations of the community”

(70). In fact, in the “space of about twelve months [the Government] had authorized the issue of four hundred and fifty million dollars in such money; and the consequences in the depreciation of the currency, the inflation of prices, and speculation in gold were then palpable to every thoughtful eye” (71). With this in mind, it is easy to see just how the

70 dire financial status of the United States could have easily made its way into Dickinson’s poetry.

Though “Luck is not chance –” (Fr1360) is a relatively short poem, Dickinson packs in enough weighty meaning to reflect the negatives of the financial market:

Luck is not chance – It’s Toil – Fortune’s expensive smile Is earned –

The Father of the Mine 5 Is that old fashioned Coin We spurned –

Luck, according to its definition in the 1844 online version of Webster’s Dictionary3, is nearly defined exactly as “chance” is defined even when considering their interpretations as good or bad; however, by equating “Luck” metaphorically to “Toil –,” meaning “labor with pain and fatigue,” we are forced to ponder on the ill effects of luck. Lady

“Fortune,”4 defined as “the good or ill that befalls man,” smiles at the expense of others, because she has a hand in the bad luck that she sees. But in a money-conscious reading, her costly smile “Is earned –” by the laborious pain and fatigue paid out from this bad business of defining legal tender.

The term “specie,” mentioned above in regards to the greenbacks, means “coin; copper, silver or gold coined and used as a circulating medium of commerce.” Knowing this, it is easy to see that “the old fashioned Coin” the speaker alludes to is gold. Gold is the “Father of the Mine” because its presence produced the gold mines, following the biological lines of progeny. And because the government’s attempt to alter the gold

71 standard by incorporating paper money “spurned” gold, or, in essence, “reject[ed] [it] with disdain” for this new money, such an economic mess was created.

At a time when the country was divided by the moral sense of fairness, Emily

Dickinson, too, was divided by what she deemed fair. Through much of her writing during the Civil War, this fairness was described using economic language that determined the costs or benefits related to the prevailing issues surrounding the war.

Coming to a head were not just issues of race, individuality, and power, but also business, finance, and politics. Betsy Erkkila explains in her essay, “The Emily Dickinson Wars,” that at a “time of massive social transformation, when a new industrial elite of money and business was eroding the traditional power, rank, and privilege of the old landed gentry, and labor was engaging in increasingly violent confrontations with capital,” Dickinson’s work reaffirms the “cultural power of mind and genius against the debased imperatives of both the capital marketplace and the democratic” (13). In studying what Dickinson does with gold and silver during an unstable time in American history, her genius in surveying the cultural milieu of her day inclusive of the capital and democratic marketplace is uncovered, and our understanding of what poems fall within those linked to the war is expanded.

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Notes

1. The full title for this work is the Chamber’s Encyclopædia: A Dictionary of Universal

Knowledge for the People Illustrated with Maps and Numerous Wood Engravings.

2. The full title for this work is The Legal Tender Acts, Considered in Relation to their

Constitutionality and their Political Economy.

3. All definitions, unless otherwise noted, are used from this source.

4. This is the second definition for “Fortune.”

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

The version of Emily Dickinson I discovered through this project represents more to me than the Concord River. My Emily Dickinson is an electrical storm, sparking to life a surge of brilliance amidst a backdrop of darkness. The friction produced between her aesthetic and what poetry was believed to be ignited her passion, resulting in a torrent of art that snapped the mold of tradition. The intensity through which she strove to create that art was only magnified through witnessing the beauty of her ability to incorporate antebellum American cultural conceptions into her pieces. Through this analysis, not only has my understanding of Dickinson expanded, but my understanding of American culture during that time has been expanded, as well.

What I’ve discovered through a close reading of “The Malay – took the Pearl –” is that the pearl industry was a tumultuous one in that it involved so many peoples forced into contact through mutual anticipated gain that disputes were expected. Not only that, but the interactions with new and exotic races caused ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and an overall denigration of the racial other I had not previously realized was supported through contemporary scientific research. Dickinson’s ability to capture this attitude in so few lines demonstrates her intellect and artistry and showcases her cosmopolitan zeal. One

74 way this project could be expanded is by analyzing the Malaysian point-of-view of the

American or the European involved in the pearl industry. This would open up research to include the fisheries in the entire region instead of just those at Ceylon. Additionally, a survey of the oppression inherent in the mining and digging for precious materials could also be discussed, not just in this chapter, but in all three as well.

Researching contemporary views of diamonds in Chapter III was fascinating, initially, because the concept of attaching histories to diamonds is something that occurs today. Any woman with a diamond wedding ring or engagement ring can recall with accuracy the details of how she was presented the ring. But the idea of the diamond becoming so popular during Dickinson’s time and how she interprets the trend to reflect a historical event highlights her skills in weaving factual data into a lyrical text. What was most intriguing was her ability to stray from her own metonymical style and have the diamond in “Reverse cannot befall” represents a powerful leader instead of a wealthy country. This chapter could be extended to include other poems that were potentially influenced by large-scale historical events.

Chapter IV unlocked within me an interest in military history that I never knew I had. Reviewing the articles examining Dickinson’s Civil War poetry from a number of angles pieced together a vivid image of war that drew me in as a reader, and reading the reaction to the war from someone who was directly affected by it provides a new perspective on the value of war. The destruction does not remain on the battlefield; it touches all who exist during that time and it can ruin social institutions in a way that takes years to mend. Comparing what Dickinson does with gold and silver to what was

75 happening around her led to such an economic reading that it was difficult not to see how her opinion of the financial institution crept into her writing. I would expand upon this chapter by determining what other poems of hers describe currency beyond obvious uses of economic language or by discovering other poems that allude to her understanding of weaponry used during the Civil War.

One of the minor goals within this project was to demonstrate how existing scholarship can be, and needs to be, updated based on the technological advances that makes this possible. Without the ease of these open-access, searchable databases, it would be nearly impossible to construct a world view surrounding pearls, diamonds, and gold and silver. The extent of my research was limited to just a few of Dickinson’s poems; however, Dickinson scholars can apply this technique to the rest of the jewels in her work or to any of the items that interest them. In fact, this project can be expanded in a number of ways within a multitude of disciplines, but I would like to focus on just one of those options here. With such an emphasis on the manipulation of objects and the cultural view of those objects, thing theory becomes an obvious form of analysis for further study.

In an article that discusses the beginning of thing theory in relation to Victorianist criticism, “Thinking Objectively: An Overview of ‘Thing Theory’ in Victorian Studies”

(2012), Jennifer Sattaur explains that thing theory was born from Andrew H. Millar’s work, Novels Behind Glass, where he “uses literature as a lens through which to examine the ‘spectacle’ of Victorian consumption” (348). In contrast to ordinary commodities research where consumption is the focus, “Millar’s work in 1995 was unusual in that, like

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Marx but unlike a majority of Marxist readings of texts, Millar takes as his starting point not the labourer, producer, or consumer of the commodity, but the commodity item itself”

(348). Because the items in his study “are nearly always in the process of escaping from consumer cycles of exchange,” meaning the owners held on to these items, “diamonds and tea sets, sleeve buttons and old lace” found ways to affix “themselves instead to the identities, memories, affections, and aspirations of the characters they possess” (349). In a sense, these items contained little histories shared by their owners.

As thing theory grows in popularity, it seems the two most popular Victorian items analyzed “have been the social importance of food and the cultural discourses surrounding interior design” (354); however, Sattaur would agree that this is a useful approach for many disciplines: “One of the most exciting aspects of ‘thing theory’ is the multidisciplinary nature of the readings it provides of well-known texts, inviting new perspectives and fresh approaches to well-worn classics as well as less canonical texts and new or little-known historical sources and materials” (355). It is easy to see how this approach is related to my project and that this author shares my enthusiasm for updating research and motivating new avenues of analysis. With that motivation in mind, it won’t be long until more projects like these snap through the mold of understanding in prevailing scholarship, much like my electrifying Emily Dickinson.

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LITERATURE CITED

The following abbreviation was used to refer to the writings of Emily Dickinson: Fr The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. R. W. Franklin. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999. Print. Citation by poem number.

“A New Diamond from Brazil.” The Mining Magazine: Devoted to Mines, Mining Operations, Metallurgy, Etc. Etc. ed. William J. Tenney and Stephen P. Leeds. Vol. 5. New York: Broadway, 1855. Google Books. Web. 31 May 2012.

“Army of the United States.” The American Annual Cyclopædia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1861. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1864. Google Books. Web. 25 Sept. 2012.

Barrett, Faith. “‘Drums off the Phantom Battlements’: Dickinson’s War Poem in Discursive Context”. A Companion to Emily Dickinson. Ed. Martha Nell Smith and Mary Loeffelholz. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Print.

---. “Public Selves and Private Spheres: Studies of Emily Dickinson and the Civil War, 1984-2007.” The Emily Dickinson Journal 16.1 (2007): 92-104. Electronic Journals Center. Web. 4 July 2012.

Benfey, Christopher. “Alcohol and Pearl: Dickinson’s Imprint on American Poetry.” Language as Object: Emily Dickinson and Contemporary Art. Ed. Susan Danly. Amherst: Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, in association with the University of Massachusetts, 1997. 43-50. Print.

Bennett, Paula Bernat. “‘The Negro never knew’: Emily Dickinson and Racial Typology in the Nineteenth Century.” Legacy 19.1 (2003): 53-61. JSTOR. Web. 10 May 2012.

Bergland, Renee. “The Eagle’s Eye: Dickinson’s View of Battle.” A Companion to Emily Dickinson. Ed. Martha Nell Smith and Mary Loeffelholz. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Print.

Bomberger, William A. and Makinen, Gail E. “Seigniorage, Legal Tender, and the Demand Notes of 1861.” Economic Inquiry 48.4 (2010): 916-932. Academic

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Search Complete. Web. 15 July 2012.

Capps, Jack. Emily Dickinson’s Reading 1836-1886. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966. Print.

Cobb, Howell. “Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of Finances.” Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, on the State of the Finances, for the Year Ending June 30, 1857. Washington, D.C.: William A. Harris, 1858. Google Books. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.

“Damaskeening.” Chamber’s Encyclopædia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People Illustrated with Maps and Numerous Wood Engravings. Vol. III. London: W and R Chambers, 1862. Google Books. Web. 25 Sept. 2012.

“Diamond.” The New American Cyclopædia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Ed. George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Vol. 6. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1859. Google Books. Web. 13 June 2012.

Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. ed. R. W. Franklin. Variorum ed. v. I- III. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998. Print.

De Sousa Coelho, Maria Luisa. “Dickinson’s ‘Tis Little I – Could Care for Pearls.’” Explicator 60.3 (2002): 140-142. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

Erkkila, Betsy. “Emily Dickinson and Class.” American Literary History 4.1 (1992): 1- 27. JSTOR. Web. 10 May. 2012.

---. “The Emily Dickinson Wars.” The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson. Ed. Wendy Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.

Ethier, Eric. “Yankee Industry, Union Muscle.” Civil War Times Illustrated 41.2 (2002): 16. EBSCO. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.

“Exit the Democratic Party.” The Round Table. 26 Dec. 1863. 20. Google Books. Web. 25 April 2012.

Farr, Judith. The Passion of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. Print.

Feuchtwanger, Lewis. A Popular Treatise on Gems, in Reference to Their Scientific Value: A Guide for the Teacher of Natural Sciences, the Lapidary, Jeweler, and Amateur—Together with a Description of the Elements of Mineralogy, and All Ornamental and Architectural Materials. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1859. Web. Google Books. Web. 29 Oct. 2011.

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Gordon, Lyndall. Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family Feuds. New York: Viking, 2010. Print.

Guiles, Paul. “‘The Earth reversed her Hemisphere’: Dickinson’s Global Antipodality.” The Emily Dickinson Journal 20.1 (2011): 1-21. Electronic Journals Center. Web. 15 June 2012.

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