Dickinson's Why do I love you, Sir?
The Logic of Love
Emily Dickinson’s poem begins with the following oddly punctuated first line: “Why do I love” You, Sir?
Dickinson’s Editors
When analyzing Dickinson’s poems, it is useful to remember that she did not work with an editor for the purpose of publishing. Her poems were edited after her death by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, but their reworking often smoothed out Dickinson’s quirky use of language to the point of crushing the innovation and nuances that made her the unique poet she was.
Therefore, Thomas H. Johnson restored her poems to the originals as found in the bundles of poem written in her own handwriting. Thus, the reader must be aware that Dickinson might have been persuaded to alter some of her quirks for publication, if she had been assured that her meaning would not be changed but instead made clearer by the changes.
The odd punctuation of this poem, especially the first line, is an example that, no doubt, would have been altered by an editor after close consultation with the poet. Indeed, it would be fascinating to hear Dickinson’s explanation for placing “Why do I love” in quotation marks, marking it appear as a unit of thought that seems to modify the second person “You.” Readers cannot know for certain what significance that odd punctuation might have had for Dickinson; therefore, modern readers must simply omit the quotation marks as they begin the poem.
The poem features four stanzas; the first two are innovative cinquains, the third is an innovative sestet, and the fourth is a Dickinsonian quatrain. The poem dramatizes the theme of God’s love as mystery.
First Stanza: “Why do I love” You, Sir?
The speaker addresses God, calling Him “Sir” and asking Him why she loves Him; she then answers her own question, “Because— / The Wind does not require the Grass / To answer.” But to answer such a mystery she must merely liken her own feelings to natural occurrences. She chooses to compare her act of love to the act of the grass, which cannot keep from moving after the wind blows through it. Her love for God is so natural that a “why” is not even applicable.
Second Stanza: “Because He knows—and”
The second stanza reveals that Christ, God the Father, and she all know that it is “Wisdom” that motivates love in the soul of the created for the Creator. That is all that is necessary, for all is included in love and wisdom.
Third Stanza: “The Lightning—never asked an Eye”
Again, the speaker reverts to describing a natural phenomenon in attempting to explain the why: it is something on the order of lightning that does not ask “an Eye” why it shuts when accosted by the flash of brilliant light. The lightning knows the “eye cannot speak,” plus reasons are just not necessary when events so intimately coalesce.
Still, the speaker is aware that the human mind want reasons for everything, and it wants to talk about things that are ineffable despite the fact that such cannot be “contained— / —Of Talk.” The mind is of the ilk of “Daintier Folk,” whose less subtle mentality needs everything spelled out in verbiage.
Fourth Stanza: “The Sunrise—Sire—compelleth Me”
But for this speaker, her love for God is simple: the sun rises, and she sees. God creates, and she loves. Only the unconscious could fail to make the logical leap to loving the Creator.
Emily Dickinson
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