Safe in their Alabaster Chambers— by Emily Dickinson
"Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—" is a poem by Emily Dickinson that explores themes of death, resurrection, and the passage of time. The poem presents a perspective on the deceased, depicted as resting comfortably in graves described as alabaster chambers, suggesting a serene and undisturbed state. Dickinson's work highlights the contrast between the peaceful slumber of the dead and the vibrant life of the world above them, where breezes laugh and nature continues its cycle, seemingly indifferent to human concerns.
Critically, the poem invites interpretations regarding the nature of knowledge and existence; while the deceased await resurrection, the poem suggests that life moves on without them, leading to reflections on the wisdom and significance lost with death. The poem exists in multiple versions, with variations in stanzas that alter its meaning and tone, reflecting Dickinson's creative process and her engagement with the complexities of life and mortality. The duality of comfort and ignorance, as well as the interplay of life and death, serves as a poignant reminder of the transient nature of power and human experience. Overall, Dickinson's poem raises profound questions about salvation, the afterlife, and the acceptance of fate, making it a rich subject for analysis and contemplation.
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Safe in their Alabaster Chambers— by Emily Dickinson
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1862 (as “The Sleeping”)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
Dickinson wrote several versions of this poem, sending them quite literally across the backyard hedge for the opinion of her sister-in-law. Unable to make a final decision, she sent two versions to Higginson, who printed the completely different final stanza of the second version together with the two stanzas of the first version, thereby creating a single poem one-third longer than Dickinson had intended.
There are curious implications in this poem that critics often overlook. Read straightforwardly, it states that the meek sleep safely in their satin-raftered, stone-roofed graves and confidently await their resurrection to ratify the salvation they already know is theirs. Breezes laugh in the castle above them; bees buzz “in a stolid Ear,” and birds sing ignorantly in cadence. The poem concludes with a lament on the wisdom lost with the dead. In the second stanza of the 1861 version, the ages wheel by, crowns drop, and doges (Italian dukes) lose their power silently.
The cynical implication of the 1859 version’s second stanza is that the breeze laughs at them as they wait, the bee gossips about them in the unyielding ear of creation, and the birds sing their meaningless songs in rhythm even as no resurrection occurs. In the 1861 version, years pass through the firmament, crowns drop, and power passes; it all happens silently, but the justified merely wait, safe in the comfort of their ignorance.
Bibliography
Boruch, Marianne. “Dickinson Descending.” The Georgia Review 40 (1986): 863-877.
Brantley, Richard E. Experience and Faith: The Late-Romantic Imagination of Emily Dickinson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Carruth, Hayden. “Emily Dickinson’s Unexpectedness.” Ironwood 14 (1986): 51-57.
Eberwein, Jane Donahue. An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Ferlazzo, Paul, ed. Critical Essays on Emily Dickinson. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1984.
Grabher, Gudrun, Roland Hagenbüchle, and Cristanne Miller, ed. The Emily Dickinson Handbook. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.
Juhasz, Suzanne, ed. Feminist Critics Read Emily Dickinson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983.
Kirk, Connie Ann. Emily Dickinson: A Biography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004.
Lundin, Roger. Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2004.
MacNeil, Helen. Emily Dickinson. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.
Pollack, Vivian R. A Historical Guide to Emily Dickinson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Vendler, Helen Hennessey. Poets Thinking: Pope, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.