Emily inson: the feet of people walking home?

“The feet of people walking home,” is of some interest in its own merit. Unlike some of inson’s other poems, such as the ones that exist among other versions due to a few dissimilarities, this poem is duplicated verbatim. To the untrained eye, this triviality would often be overlooked, were it not for the fact that Emily inson had not intended on publishing many of her poems. Why, then, did she duplicate this poem? Perhaps a more in-depth ysis of the poem, as well as the current events in inson’s life, would answer this query. Estimated to have been written in the year 1858, the poem begins its first stanza by conveying the emotions of gaiety and joyfulness, which are ociated with page to heaven. A much more somber note pervades the second stanza, in which inson uses metaphors to compare the entrance to heaven with the act of theft. The third stanza combines the previous two by hinting at the theory that those who are already in heaven do not want more people entering heaven’s gates, because that would diminish the high status that heaven and angels hold. The tone in the first stanza is of joyousness and excitement, as people make their way to heaven. inson uses the words “gayer,” “hallelujah,” and “singing” to emphasize the uplifting feeling here. It could be argued that this is the point in the humans’ lives (or deaths, or afterlives, depending on how one looks at it) when they reach the pinnacle of happiness, for they have finally entered heaven. The humans, now dead, would then acquire wings, immortality, and an angelic status that rises far above that of humans. Much like inson’s other poems, this one uses metaphors to represent similar things, such as “home,” which represents “heaven,” “snow,” which represents the “clouds” on which heaven resides, and “vals,” which represents the “angels” who serve God. The second stanza shares a relation to the first, but it could be described as being completely opposite in tone. inson uses the words “extorted,” “larceny,” and “death” to emphasize the crime that is personified here. inson uses more metaphors in this stanza to compare the onrush of people entering heaven to divers who take pearls from the sea. In both cases, a sense of “value” is diminished, or perhaps even lost. Referring back to the first stanza, inson subtly states that the status of angels would no longer be as honorable or magnificent as it is now if everyone were to acquire wings, achieve immortality, and enter heaven. As with the pearls under the sea, the value attributed to angels is inversely proportional to the number in known existence. More pearls out of the sea would be comparable to more angels in heaven. Their values are derived from their rarity. The third stanza continues by combining the previous two, as well as taking into consideration the feelings of the angels, whom inson believes are enraged at the “extortion” of their honor and magnificence. inson metaphorically describes the angels’ method of keeping people out by saying that the angels (including Dickinson’s ancestors) “veil their faces” so that humans cannot easily find their way to heaven (line 21). (Though it is true that each of Franklin’s versions regarding this poem, as well as the original mcripts, contain the word “vail,” Dickinson has proven in at least one of her letters that she has a tendency to misspell words, including “veil.” Taken in context, “veil” seems more appropriate.) Wolff makes a note that “concealment” is a recurring motif in Dickinson’s poems when she says, “Rage is entirely separated from ‘my father, Edward Dickinson’: it finds expression only in the poetry, directed toward a ‘Father’ in Heaven Whose face we never see and Whose voice we never hear” (64). Could it be, then, that the phrase “My Clics” roughly translates to “My Father” (line 21)? It is interesting to note here that Dickinson loved her father dearly, but that love was not reciprocal. Shortly after her father’s death, Emily Dickinson writes in one of her letters, “I am glad there is Immortality – but would have tested it myself – before entrusting him” (Wolff 64). Despite her love and respect for her father, she perhaps feared the possibility that her father would make efforts after his own death to prevent her from entering heaven. It seems, then, that one’s interest for this poem is twofold. The first interest is the purpose for the poem’s duplication. A possible motive can be brought to light with a quick look at the original mcripts, at the end of which there is a snippet of another poem. Perhaps the duplication process was enacted merely to separate “The feet of people walking home” from the other, much shorter poem. If this is the case, the duplication may be of no significance at all. The second interest, the poem’s meaning, is undoubtedly the most interesting of the two. The poem could be about Emily Dickinson’s thoughts regarding an unloving father. Yet, with Dickinson’s multitude of metaphors, any meaning can be interpreted for this poem.