The Soul Has Bandaged Moments

The Soul has Bandaged moments -

When too appalled to stir -

She feels some ghastly Fright come up

And stop to look at her -

Salute her, with long fingers -

Caress her freezing hair -

Sip, Goblin, from the very lips

The Lover - hovered - o'er -

Unworthy, that a thought so mean

Accost a Theme - so - fair -

The soul has moments of Escape -

When bursting all the doors -

She dances like a Bomb, abroad,

And swings opon the Hours,

As do the Bee - delirious borne -

Long Dungeoned from his Rose -

Touch Liberty - then know no more -

But Noon, and Paradise

The Soul's retaken moments -

When, Felon led along,

With shackles on the plumed feet,

And staples, in the song,

The Horror welcomes her, again,

These, are not brayed of Tongue -

The poem has three sections: lines 1 to 10; lines 11 to 18; lines 19 to 24. The divisions correspond to two stanzas per section, but note that the length of stanza two is six lines (against 4 lines for the other stanzas), and there is a case for saying that the last two lines belong with the preceding stanza. I will return to this.

The imagery in the first section is frightening: we see the Soul recovering from an assault- "Bandaged moments"; the Soul is "appalled", traumatised into immobility. The personification of "ghastly Fright" accosting her suggests unwelcome sexual advances-"Sip, Goblin from the very lips The Lover- hovered-o'er". The "Salute" and "Caress" are clearly repellent to the Soul: we see the effect in her "freezing hair". The imagery is ambiguous; Dickinson may well be referring to sexual infidelity, but she could also be describing an actual assault. In either case, the Soul experiences trauma.

In the second section, the Soul experiences joy: we read of "Escape", "dances", "delirious", "Liberty", "Paradise"; "swings upon the hours" suggests a child at play all day long. "Dances", however, is qualified by the simile "like a Bomb". It is a curious comparison to employ: bombs can explode and cause damage. The Soul is also compared to a "Bee - delirious borne -

Long Dungeoned from his Rose -".

The Bee can "Touch Liberty - then know no more -

But Noon, and Paradise".

However, this is not the case for the Soul, as we see in the final section. Here, the Soul, represented as a bird is a Felon with "shackles on the plumed feet". The Song of the bird is silenced by "staples". The irony of "The Horror welcomes her, again" is obvious. Note the "again"; this has happened before, and will again. These horrible experiences are not talked about- "These, are not brayed of Tongue-".

Dickinson sees the Soul as alternating between trauma and blissful escape. One wonders if Dickinson sees the Soul as carrying within her the seeds of destruction- "dances like a bomb"? Is it natural for us to bring about our own downfall, just as it is natural for the Bee to be imprisoned ("Dungeoned") in the rose? A disturbing part of Dickinson's vision is that whereas the Soul clearly publicises its joy in moments of "Escape", it remains silent about the horror it undergoes- "not brayed of Tongue".

If the last two stanzas are taken as one, then the trauma of the soul in stanza two (six lines) is reinforced by the repetition of a six line stanza in the final stanza. The argument for saying that the final two lines belong to the preceding stanza is the rhyme/half rhyme of "Tongue" with "song" and "along".