tension in her mind between belief and disbelief. She begins a poem with a strong statement of faith, proceeds to examine it, qualify it, or question it, and then ends the poem with a statement of doubt or with one that indicates her condition of suspended judgment. 7 I know that He exists. Would not the funSomewhere in Silence- Look too expensive! Would not the jest He has hid His rare life, Have crawled too far! From our gross eyes ‘Tis an instant’s play. Those-dying then, ‘Tis a fond Ambush- Knew where they went- Just to make blissThey went to God’s Right Hand-Earn her own surprise!That hand is amputated now And God cannot be found-But-should the playProve piercing earnest-Should the glee-glaze- In death’s-stiff-stareThe voice that we hear in Emily Dickinson’s poetry, like the one above written in her early years, may be defiant when she challenges God or her proudness. As one critic described the poem, “The first line has the piety of heaven, the last the poison of Hell.” 8 Dickinson begins with an orthodox statement that affirms that God exists and that He hides himself from us only to tease our love. “If there is no salvation after death,” she exclaims, “a cruel joke indeed would have been played ...
