Guido 2
Stefany Guido
Dr. Scanlon
ENGL 457P
4/14/11
Calvinism and Dickinson: Her Struggle with a Sovereign God
One of the major areas of study when looking at Dickinson is her religious poems because of the sheer quantity and the complicated relationship she establishes with God, as seen in these poems. Her Calvinist background is something that greatly affected her image of God and it’s with this image that she spends her entire life struggling, but I would argue that, while some scholars posit that in her later life “agnosticism and even atheism” (Zapedowska 379) were positions that Dickinson was comfortable with, this isn’t an apt description of her religious beliefs at the end of her life.
Looking throughout the three major periods in Dickinson’s life –her early years (1858-1861), her prolific period (1862-1865), and then her later life (1866-1886)– the changes in her outlook on God go through cycles, but overall by the end of her life the anger and resentment that’s apparent in her earlier poems is still just as striking in her later years. But she’s never comfortable with the assertion that there isn’t a God; furthermore, while she’s incredibly dissatisfied with the Calvinist representation of God throughout her life, she continually represents God with the traits and characteristics of the Calvinist image of God. In the end, Dickinson maintained a complicated relationship with this figure, but never fully renounced or replaced this figure with another that wasn’t representative of Calvinism. By looking at her poems throughout the major periods in her life it’s possible to track this difficult relationship with God and this religion.
In order to understand Dickinson’s struggle with Calvinism you need to first understand the basics of this religion. Calvinism is a branch of Protestantism that’s most often attributed to the teachings of John Calvin. One of the most important tenets of this belief is that God is seen as “absolutely sovereign” (“Calvinism”), thus his word has complete power. Another major belief of this branch of Protestantism that differentiates it from the others is the idea of predestination; this is the concept that God has already chosen those who’re going to be saved and those who’re going to fall and nothing can change this decision. During the Synod of Dort (1619-1619) they defined the five canons of Calvinism: that because of original sin man is unable to achieve salvation without God’s grace, that the saved are only saved because God has chosen them, that Christ’s only died to save those that God has already chosen for salvation, that those that are predestined cannot resist God’s grace, and that those that have been predestined cannot lose God’s grace (“Calvinism”). It’s with these five points that Dickinson would have been very familiar with because of Calvinism’s popularity in New England.
The God figure that’s described above through these five points wasn’t ideal for Dickinson and in her early years this figure was something that she struggled with and continued to struggle with throughout her life. In Calvinism, the godhead is not one that lends itself to a personal relationship–something Dickinson reached out for–because this figure is “hidden on high, absent from human affairs, and unmoved in his sovereignty” (Zapedowska 382). This isn’t the only troubling image that Dickinson had to work with because in the Westminster Assembly’s Shorter Catechism (a work that was still used for teaching during Dickinson’s time) God is defined as being “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth” (Zapedowska 384); so, this figure of God is not only cold and absent from human life, but this is how he’ll remain for eternity. He’s frozen forever as an unapproachable figure that Dickinson depicts in her poems and attempts to rework into something she’s able to relate to; ultimately her attempt failed in this regard.
In her early life this figure would have been inescapable for Dickinson, especially with the onset of several religious revivals that occurred in 1844-1845, 1848, 1850, and 1858. The Second Great Awakening had begun in New England and was categorized by “revival meetings and emotional conversion experiences” (Boyer). This extremely religious atmosphere saturated the world around Dickinson, but early on she’d begun resisting the revival meetings, and in 1845 she opted to not to attend the prayer meetings that occurred during this year’s revival (Longsworth 338). This resistance was due to the fact that in 1844 Dickinson and her cousin Sophia Holland had been deeply involved in the prayer meetings, but Sophia suddenly died; this experience had left Dickinson feeling betrayed and when she wrote about her reasons for not joining the prayer groups she said it was because she didn’t want to “again be deceived” (Longsworth 338). Dickinson, throughout her life, was deeply affected whenever someone close to her died and because of this she was unable to come to terms with this growing image of a cold and distant God figure who ‘deceives’ her and takes those who she cares about.
Also, during this time period Dickinson was slowly becoming isolated due to her resistance against the revivals. In a letter to a friend Dickinson writes that “Christ is calling everyone here, all my companions have answered, even my darling Vinnie believes she loves, and trusts him, and I am standing alone in rebellion” (Longsworth 345). In this excerpt it’s interesting to note Dickinson’s use of the term “rebellion” because she’s not saying that she doesn’t ‘hear’ Christ’s call, just that she’s chosen to ignore what everyone else takes in good faith. Even in her early years Dickinson was skeptical of this figure that she’s not even permitted to ‘see’ or commune with. It’s interesting to note that, as stated above, one of the five points of Calvinism is that those who’re chosen cannot resist God’s grace, and Dickinson actively resists what those around her see as ‘Christ’s call’. Her inability to simply join in with these revivals ultimately sets her with those who’re not saved, thus her rebellion against this religion becomes easier to understand; she’s trapped in a unacceptable fate within this religion, but she’s unwilling to completely denounce God altogether and unable to break with Calvinism.
This is what categorizes this period of time, her rebellion against this God head is shown in her anger and resentment towards a religion that she’s literally surrounded by. During this period she periodically tries to work her ideas of religion into a system that suits her, but the figure of God continually complicates this; several of the Calvinist ideas that she attempts to work around are predestination and God as absolute ruler. These points prevent her from accepting this religion, thus she needs to pick them apart to understand not only her God, but herself and why she’s unable to accept this God.
In the poem “I never Lost as much but twice-” (39), which was written early in Dickinson’s writing career in 1858, is about the loss and grief of the narrator asking God to change his mind:
I never lost as much but twice –
And that was in the sod.
Twice have I stood a beggar
Before the door of God!
The anger that Dickinson felt towards God is obvious in her tone and word choice. She describes herself as a “beggar” (3) before God; this places the speaker at a vulnerable position to God in the poem. Also, while she stands “Before the door of God” (4) it’s not God that comes to “reimburse” (6) her for her losses, but rather the “Angels” (5) that come to help her in the second stanza:
Angels – twice descending
Reimbursed my store –
Burglar! Banker – Father!
I am poor once more!
The speaker is quite literally begging this God to give back what she’s lost, but it’s not enough. She refers to God as “Burglar, Banker – Father!” (7), which is an interesting graduation of terms; she goes from naming him as an impersonal thief, to accusing him of being a business man simply collecting his dues, but it gets really interesting when she elevates this by calling him “Father” in the end. This is a strong indication of the confusion that Dickinson was feeling towards this God. She’s setting herself apart by rebelling, but this wasn’t a simple decision she made; this line shows the close personal relationship that Dickinson yearns for with God, but is ultimately denied. Calvinism just doesn’t allow for this type of bond. Ultimately, she calls out to God in the end of the poem because, while she’s angry at him, she still seeks him for comfort.
The business-like language that Dickinson uses in the above poem to talk about God, i.e. “reimburse,” and “Banker,” is continued in the poem “Victory comes late-” (195). In this poem Dickinson is discussing how frugal God is with his love:
Victory comes late –
And is held low to freezing lips –
Too rapt with frost
To take it –
How sweet it would have tasted –
Just a Drop –
Was God so economical?
His Table’s spread too high for Us –
Unless We dine on Tiptoe –
Crumbs – fit such little mouths –
Cherries – suit Robins –
The Eagle’s Golden Breakfast strangles – Them –
God keep His Oath to Sparrows –
Who of little love – know how to starve – (195)
The offhand and curious tone that’s established in the beginning with the discussion of death as a simple loss of “Victory” and musings of “how sweet it would have tasted” is offset by the business like word choice used in the rest of the poem and the striking bitterness in the last two lines. The turning point is when she asks: “Was God so economical?” (7). The word “economical” sets the reader up with an image of God budgeting out his love; this illustrates the distant and impersonal relationship that the figure has with his followers.
Dickinson is rejecting this relationship, though, in the last two lines, “God keep His Oath to Sparrows- / Who of little Love – Know how to starve -” (13-14). The curious tone that is set with the line, “How sweet it would have tasted -” (5), which is rather lighthearted wondering of a different life. In this life, victory would not have come too late; that is to say if God’s love had not been offered to only those after their death. This echoes the belief that one needs to devote their life to “glorify[ing] God” (Zapedowska 384) and only then in death will they receive their salvation. Here Dickinson is striking out against this school of thought because she doesn’t want to have to “starve” (14) for his love in life. While the previous poem, written three years earlier, was angry and hurt with the Calvinist God head, this poem is much bitterer in its overall tone. She’s hurt by the “economical” (7) distribution of his love, but she’s not going to sit back and accept this because while these “crumbs” (9) of God’s love might “suit Robins -” (10) because anything more might have strangled “Them” (11), she’s not a part of this group. Dickinson puts herself outside this group so, when she says that they “know how to starve -” (14) the inverse is that she doesn’t know how to starve and is therefore going to find an alternative. This God isn’t providing the stimulation that Dickinson finds that she needs.
This realization that the Calvinist God head isn’t measuring up to expectations continues in the poem “The Skies can’t keep their Secret” (213):
The Skies cant keep their secret!
They tell it to the Hills –
The Hills just tell the Orchards –
And they – the Daffodils!
In the first stanza Dickinson is exclaiming that the world created by God, i.e. the “Skies” (1), “Hills” (2), “Orchards” (3), and “Daffodils” (4), “can’t keep their secret” (1), but paradoxically the speaker doesn’t want to know and she sets this up in the second and third stanzas:
A Bird – by chance – that goes that way –
Soft overhears the whole –
If I should bribe the little Bird –
Who knows but she would tell?
I think I won’t – however –
It’s finer - not to know –
If Summer were an axiom –
What sorcery had snow?
If she were to “bribe” the bird to tell its secrets she’d loose interest in the world around her; “If Summer were an axiom - / What sorcery had snow?” (11-12). If summer were an absolute truth that everyone accepted, why would the beauty of a snowfall have any value? Therefore, because Dickinson doesn’t know the secret of the world, she’s able to fully enjoy the “snow” (11) or life around her. This desire to enjoy the world was another tension in Dickinson’s life in regards to her religion because she felt that she’d have to “give up the world for Christ” (Longsworth 338) and for someone who derived such passion from the outside world this wasn’t easily acceptable. In contrast to this desire to not know there is still an indignant tone present in the last stanza:
So keep your secret - Father!
I would not - if I could -
Know what the Sapphire Fellows, do,
In your new-fashioned world!
In the line, “So keep your secrets – Father!” (13), she’s come to the conclusion on her own that she wouldn’t want to know “secret” (12), which we find out is the knowledge of what the angels, “Sapphire Fellows” (15), do in Heaven, “your new-fashioned world” (16), but she still resents God for not allowing her to make this choice. This is indicative of the concept of predestination that exists within Calvinism. Dickinson resents these secrets overall because she has no real power to make the choice if she wanted to, “I would not –if I could- ” (16). Here she casually inserts the line “if I could - ” using dashes, which make this sound like an afterthought and give this line more bitter quality. Dickinson’s still struggling to place herself within this religion and as with the previous two poems this one just illustrated another failing of this system of belief, but like the poem “Victory comes late - ” she ends up referring to God as “Father” (17). This signifies, again, her inability to separate from this figure; she still sees him as someone deeply connected to her life, like a father figure.