Dear Sue –
Annotation #1
The significance of this line “Dear Sue” is addressed in Annotation #10. However, I wanted to use this annotation to reflect on the significance of the poem that directly followed this in Christanne Miller’s work “Emily Dickinson’s Poems : As She Preserved Them”. The poem directly follows “Removed from Accident of Loss”, which is how Dickinson ordered the poems when she created Fascicle 14, this is not the order that appears in Open Me Carefully. The reason I bring up this poem is because it also talks about “Riches”. The speaker in the poem “Removed from Accident of Loss” compares her lack of good fortune to the good luck of a man who doesn’t appreciate what he has. She begins the second stanza with the phrase “Of Riches”, as riches are what she is seeking and what the man has. The contrast throughout the poem between the two resembles the contrast between the girl in school and the speaker in this poem. It seems naive to think that these poems were placed in this order coincidentally. I think that given the girl at school is representative of Sue, the man in this poem is representative of Austin and how he has Sue and doesn’t realize his good fortune. Dickinson even compares the man’s unconsciousness of his good fortune to the Malaysian unconsciousness of the pearls of the South China Sea. (See Annotation #8 for further explanation on why this comparison is significant).
Your – Riches –
taught me – poverty!Annotation #2
Dickinson didn’t title or number any of her poems, so they are referred to by their first lines. In this case the functioning “title” of the poem is “Your Riches–taught me–Poverty”. This line could stand alone and it would still evoke emotion in a reader. Emily Dickinson wrote this poem in Autumn of 1862 and she sent it to both Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, and Thomas Higginson. The message of the entire poem can be encompassed in this first line. The “you” is Sue and the “me” is Emily. In this case, the riches are not literal riches they are Sue’s life at this point. She is currently married to Emily’s brother, Austin, and has just had the birth of her first child. Emily is feeling left behind and inadequate in comparison to Sue’s fruitful life. However, not only does she feel left behind as she is writing it, she has felt “poor” compared to Sue since they were just girls at school.
In little – wealths – as
Girls can boast –
Til broad as “Buenos Ayre” –Annotation #3
The literal meaning of “Buenos Ayre” when it is translated to English is “Good Air” or “Fair Winds”. In the sense of this poem, the airs allowed for the expansion of Sue’s influence and power over Emily as her “dominions drifted” in the next line.
You drifted your Dominions –
Annotation #4
Dominion can be defined as a territory or literal power over another person or place. Here, Dickinson saying that Sue drifted her dominions is saying that she still holds power over her because of Dickinson’s feelings for Sue. Another analysis of this line with regards to Sue’s power over Dickinson comes from Dickinson biographer Richard Sewall. Sewall suggests that Dickinson may be reminding Sue of two characters in the 1849 novel Kavanagh, that both girls had read. In the novel there are two girls, Alice and Cecilia, that relate to Emily and Sue. Alice is “thoughtful, silent, susceptible; often sad, often in tears, often lost in reveries”, while Cecilia is “beautiful, confident, outgoing, and very popular with the young gentlemen”. Clearly, there is resemblance to the two in these descriptions of the characters and Cecilia’s confident personality would definitely have dominated Alice, as Emily is experiencing here. Longfellow, the author of Kavanagh even describes the relationship between the two girls in a way that is shockingly close to the relationship that Sue and Emily share: “They walked together after school; they told each other their manifold secrets; they wrote long and impassioned letters to each other in the evening; in a word, they were in love with each other”. Therefore, this poem can also be seen as an explanation of what Emily’s relationship with Sue means to her as each characteristic of that description is referenced in this poem.
For Life’s Estate – with you!
Annotation #5
This poem highlights the vast difference between Sue and the speaker and how even though they have both changed, they are still vastly different. Sue had once been literally poor, but her personality and now her status as Austin’s wife and mother to his children, make her rich. Dickinson spends the majority of the poem comparing Sue’s riches to the exotic places like Buenos Ayre, Peru, and India, which are all known for housing some kind of riches. These literal riches and the metaphorical riches that Sue has both make Dickinson feel like she is inadequate. Not only does she not have a rich life, she has no actual riches either. Yet, despite all of these shortcomings and despair caused by this realization, the speaker would give up anything and everything, “For Life’s Estate with you-“. This shows the immense care and love Dickinson holds for Sue.
But this – must be
A different Wealth –
To miss it – beggars – so!Annotation #6
The true loss of this poem can be summarized in that Sue is repesented as a diamond or a pearl, or any rich that needs to be mined. However, Dickinsons doesn’t know anything about mining for gems, all she knows is the “colors of the commonest”. She doesn’t have the knowledge to “mine for” Sue, or earn her love, yet at the same time she doesn’t have the knowledge to even know how the true beauty of Sue. Given that her knowledge can’t even encompass the full beauty of Sue, yet she already views Sue as the most precious gem, she is able to recognize that Sue’s “wealth” is of a different type that is so vast that she would be beggared if she ever fully lost her.
I’m sure tis “India” – all
day –
To those who look on
you –
Without a stint – without
a blame –
Might I – but be the Jew!
Annotation #7
The scholar Judith far points out that at the time that Dickinson was writing this poem (August 1862), Harper’s Monthly, The Atlantic Monthly, and Scribner’s had all printed articles that were about diamond mining and cutting in South America and India. This obviously influenced Dickinson’s poems as mining and diamonds/riches were repeated images throughout this poem and the ones surrounding it. The significance of including mines and images of riches through the use of naming countries like Peru (silver) and India (spices, silk) is that it adds to the notion of possession and it shows that the love of Sue is hard to attain just like these incredible riches. It also alludes to a stereotypes of “Jews” at the time which was that Jewish merchants were the ones who were the diamond traders. If Dickinson could be “the Jew” she would be able to look at Sue as much as she wanted without “blame” – with Sue being the diamond that is being mined. There is also a play on words here and throughout the poem with the concept of mining as Dickinson’s true longing is to make Sue “mine”.
And estimate – the Pearl –
That slipped – my simple fingers –
thro’Annotation #8
The scholar Paula Bennet remarks that this is “the only poem in which Dickinson ever felt totally free to express in direct and undisguised form the love she felt for this extraordinary and very much underrated women.” This becomes clearly visible as you read this line. This line is part of what I have learned to be called the “pearl sequence”, which is an array of references to a pearl that represents Susan throughout many of Dickinson’s poems. This particular case is unusual for two different reasons. First, in this poem, the speaker actually admits that she let the pearl slip through her fingers while she was a school girl, rather than “losing her” later in life to her brother. Second, it is also unusual because the note that is attached to the letter says “Dear Sue–You see I remember–Emily”. This shows that the poem is in fact about Sue making the pearl explicitly understood to represent Sue. The “pearl sequence” is inspired by Dickinson’s religious affiliation as it the pearl imagery is drawn from the biblical book of Matthew. In Matthew 13:45-46 there is the Parable of the Pearl. This parable reads as follows: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it”. This parable is commonly understood to be showing the great value of the Kingdom of Heaven, as pearls were even more valuable during this time period. The pearl in this parable is also shown to represent good fortune, good deeds, and “the deal of a lifetime” which instigates hard work in the followers. This is significant in two ways. First, Dickinson repeatedly uses biblical imagery to represent Sue, showing her disciple like devotion to her as she makes Sue seem more than human. Second, Dickinson is showing everything that she let slip away by losing Sue – good fortune, a valuable life, etc. This poem is both an acceptance of that loss and a farewell to Sue as Bennett points out that Sue had just recently had her first child when Dickinson wrote this poem and Dickinson knew their relationship would never be the same.
While yet – a Girl –
at School!Annotation #9
Emily Dickinson is well known for using dashes as her sole form of punctuation, as well as seemingly random capitalization that some scholars deduce appears to follow an Old English style. This defiance of form through punctuation and capitalization is already a signature style choice of Dickinson. However, here the pure defiance of adhering to a strict form is seen in full force. If Dickinson had changed this line to read “While yet at school, a girl”, the last line would have rhymed. This change would not have been welcomed by Dickinson because it was not her original thought, and her poems were articulations of her original thoughts (especially since they were often first written as letters to Sue, they were very personal and similar to a journal or stream of consciousness).
Dear Sue –
You see I remember –
Emily.Annotation #10
When this poem was first written it was mailed to Sue at the Evergreen in 1862. Also included in the envelope with the poem was a note which read: “Dear Sue — You see I remember — Emily.” Attaching this note gives added meaning to the poem. This is just written at the bottom of the poem in Open Me Carefully, but it was on a small, separate piece of paper when it was first sent to Sue. This little statement shows that Sue was in fact the subject of the poem, as Dickinson is saying that she remembers when they were both children and she met Sue and immediately became enchanted. This note also emphasizes the poem’s status as a letter; however, this is further emphasized by the line above the poem “Dear Sue.” Dickinson later also sent a copy to Thomas Wentworth Higginson without the mentioning of Sue. Soon after Dickinson sent this poem to Higginson, she asked him to become her “preceptor”, or teacher, like a replacement for Sue who was entering the realm of motherhood at this time.