The speaker of Emily Dickinson's mystic poem offers a refreshing look at the soul's journey from the astral plane to the physical plane. It also alludes to reincarnation.
Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Each Life Converges” (#680 in Johnson), consists of five stanzas. It features her signature slant rimes, but the alternating long and short lines provide a departure from her usual hymnal meter.
First Stanza: “Each Life Converges to some Centre”
According to this speaker, each human being begins when the soul enters or “converges” with the unified ovum and sperm. The ”[g]oal” of each convergence is a human being; and not only is this convergence limited to homo sapiens but all life forms. But this speaker is more interested in exploring “Human Nature, “whether “[e]xpressed — or still.”
Second Stanza: “Embodied scarcely to itself — it may be”
After the soul has found itself “embodied,” it slowly grows accustomed to the physical level of existence. It may find it difficult to believe that a physical body now governs its every movement. Having been used to the rapid deployment capabilities of the astral level, it feels itself “scarcely to itself.”
But then it soon realizes that despite being perhaps “[t]oo fair / For Credibility's presumption / To mar,“ it must again become habituated to its new body. A certain vague sense of loss accompanies the new soul, yet at the same time, it soon becomes distracted by its new environment.
Third Stanza: “Adored with caution — as a Brittle Heaven”In the third stanza, the speaker continues to aver the contrast between the physical and astral levels of being. The physical plane is like a “[b]rittle Heaven”—not resilient and supple as the astral heaven—thus the new soul uses caution as it becomes enamored with this new situation.
The contrast, however, remains strong, and the sensitive soul realizes how “hopeless” total accommodation is: it is as impossible as trying to touch “the Rainbow's Raiment.” The old gospel hymn, “This World is not my Home” bears the same attitude.
Fourth Stanza: “Yet persevered toward — sure — for the Distance”
The fourth stanza presumes a span of years has passed, and the soul is now once again turning toward its origin. It becomes painfully aware of its exile from true heaven, its descent through a “brittle Heaven,” and now it craves once again its true home. It “persevere[s] toward” that heaven.
It perceives a supposed great distance from itself, wonders “[h]ow high,” and finally realizes its path runs through “the Saint's slow diligence.” And its new goal is the “Sky,” here metaphorically representing Heaven or God-unity.
Fifth Stanza: “Ungained — it may be — by a Life's low Venture”
Then the speaker makes a disheartening pronouncement, immediately followed by an uplifting one. It is quite possible that the soul will fail in its heavenly pursuit; unity with God might remain “ungained,” because of “a Life's low Venture,” or following an unwholesome path through life.
But there is room for hopeful rejoicing, because that soul has all of eternity to find its way back to its original home in God: “Eternity enable the endeavoring / Again.”
Other Dickinson articles:
- Dickinson’s Winter Welcome: ‘Winter is good — his Hoar delights’
- Dickinson’s Winter: “Like Brooms of Steel”
- Dickinson’s Slant of Light: Intuition Through Winter Melancholy
- December Poet – Emily Dickinson: Dickinson’s “Twas just this time, last year, I died”
- Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz”: Mystical Adeptness
- Dickinson’s Summer: “I know a place where Summer strives”
- “A Bird came down the Walk”: Dickinson’s Frightened Beads
- Dickinson’s Spiritual Intoxication: “I taste a liquor never brewed”
- Dickinson’s Riddles: “It sifts from leaden sieves” and “I like to see it lap the miles”
- Looking Back from Eternity: Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death”
- The Nun of Amherst: Dickinson’s Spiritual Poetry
- Emily's Brain: Dickinson’s “The Brain is wider than the Sky”
