No Rack can torture me (384) and This World is not Conclusion (373)
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The poem consists of four 4-line stanzas (quartet), with three stresses per line (trimeter), of variable iambic1 meter, with rhyme scheme aabb, using liberal slant rhyme2 and enjambment3, creating a typically unique Dickinson structure.
No Rack can torture me—
My Soul—at Liberty—
Behind this mortal Bone
There knits a bolder One—
You cannot prick with saw—
Nor pierce with Scimitar—
Two Bodies—therefore be—
Bind One—The Other fly—
The Eagle of his Nest
No easier divest—
And gain the Sky
Than mayest Thou—
Except Thyself may be
Thine Enemy—
Captivity is Consciousness—
So’s Liberty.
Dickinson clearly states the premise of the poem in the first two lines: no physical torture (rack) can affect her spirit if her soul is free (liberty). (Compare Lovelace’s Stone Walls do not a Prison make,/Nor Iron bars a Cage. See Post, Lovelace.) Dickinson means this literally in the context of this poem, but it can also be an anthem for the independence of thought and self-assertiveness that characterizes her poetry. Later in life almost always wearing white and almost never leaving her bedroom , writing poems on chocolate wrappers, all indicate someone whom social norms did not restrict. She, and her poetry, are what we now would call a “unicorn.”
She continues the first stanza by elaborating on those first two lines: Within us, Behind the mortal Bone (the body), exists a bolder self (One) intertwined (knits) with the body; while the latter is susceptible to torture (saw, Scimitar {sword]), the soul is inviolable, impervious to torture (you cannot prick nor pierce). Personally addressing the reader (Thou), she asserts that therefore we consist of two entities :Two Bodies (the body and the soul)–therefore be; enslave (Bind) the body, and the soul will fly free (the other fly). Just as an Eagle easily flies free of his nest and reaches (gain) the Sky, so may our souls fly free of our bodies and reach the sky of salvation .
Unless (Except)
we are our own Enemies, letting Consciousness accept imprisonment–metaphorical or otherwise–instead of refuting it and embracing Liberty of the mind. Choosing Imprisonment or liberty is a matter of apprehension. Choose wisely.
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- lines with iambic feet-each containing one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one ↩︎
- type of rhyme in which two words located at the end of two lines of poetry end in similar—but not identical—consonant sounds; ex., be/fly.. ↩︎
- the continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break ↩︎
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This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond –
Invisible, as Music –
But positive, as Sound –
It beckons, and it baffles –
Philosophy, dont know –
And through a Riddle, at the last –
Sagacity, must go –
To guess it, puzzles scholars –
To gain it, Men have borne
Contempt of Generations
And Crucifixion, shown –
Faith slips – and laughs, and rallies –
Blushes, if any see –
Plucks at a twig of Evidence –
And asks a Vane, the way –
Much Gesture, from the Pulpit –
Strong Hallelujahs roll –
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul –
The second poem, This World is not Conclusion, consists of five stanzas of four line each (though not divided on the page) with three stresses per line (trimeter), of variable iambic meter, with rhyme scheme abcb, using liberal slant rhyme and enjambment, creating again a typically unique Dickinson structure.
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And again in the first line Dickinson clearly asserts the premise of the poem: This World, i.e., the world of the senses, cannot be said conclusively to be the only one, emphasized by the full stop at the end of the line, the only line with a period at the end, as opposed to dashes . We can sense that there is another type of be-ing (A Species) that exists beyond the physical one. This “world” is as ethereal (Invisible)as Music but as definite (positive) as Sound.
The inner “Species” invites us to know it (beckons), but remains unknowable (baffles), so it exists only as a mystery, substantiating the body and soul duality we saw in No Rack can torture me, only here the nature of the soul is only part of the Species, an entire realm of spirit that transcends our reason and remains a Riddle to us: Philosophy is useless, as is Sagacity (wisdom), scholars cannot puzzle it out. Dickenson now becomes more specific in defining the issue. The following three lines explicitly refer to persecution of Christians for their beliefs and seem to clearly identify the Species realm as the afterlife, salvation. Christians suffered the Contempt of past old-world believers, most notably, in extremis, the Crucifixion of Christ, in trying to obtain (gain) heaven, buoyed by their faith, but even faith is human and has limits: it can err (slip) in its attempts at understanding or explanation, though it may laugh at itself and rally , and blush if seen to do so, all human characteristics, indicative of faith’s limitations. At most it may be able to Pluck at a twig of Evidence, insufficient to demonstrate the existence of an afterlife, and ask a weather-vane of understanding to point the way to “the answer,” all in vain.
As a result, nothing actually available to us in the real world can assuage our doubts; we are left with our insoluble questions. All attempts (gestures) at explaining by religion, all the imprecations of prayer (Strong Hallelujahs), even Narcotics cannot soothe the questioning metaphorical Tooth that nibbles at the soul–doubt.
Unlike all the other religious poetry we have analyzed in this blog, there is no final reconciliation with God here. We are left in doubt. Ever the iconoclast, as we also saw in No rack, Dickinson asserts the individuality of thought and expression that has sustained her inclusion in the highest pantheon of Western poetry.
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(Note: You can view most poems on the website, Poetry Foundation.)
(Note: My Poetry Recordings Playlist: At the very bottom of the post Is a recording. To view my entire playlist of poetry recordings, hover over “1/18” in the upper right corner, then click on ‘My Poetry Recordings Playlist:´and make selection.)
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