Journal #4 Emily Dickinson: Her Message Is- Don't Judge Me!

QUOTE:

“For love of Her – Sweet – countrymen - / Judge tenderly – of Me” (Dickinson 87)


SUMMARY:

It almost seems like Dickinson is asking for people in the world to not judge her harshly in this poem. There are also a lot of random capitalizations of letters, which possibly emphasize a deeper meaning within each word.


RESPONSE:

The message in this poem seems to be that the “World” is ignoring Emily Dickinson, but God Herself told Dickinson that She wants everyone to “be nice.” This seems like the “message from God” that most people believe to be true: Judge not lest ye be judged. (I’m pretty sure that’s the saying.) So it sounds like Dickinson is beseeching her readers to think of her kindly while they read her poetry. It sort of reminds me of certain female writers we read in 48A, or any female writer who would include in her work that she is only a helpless woman; so readers shouldn’t judge her like they would a male author. I guess it could be a defensive way to protect Dickinson’s self-confidence, even though she probably knew that her writing was very good.

As far as technical aspects in this poem, when I first read the poem I right away noticed Dickinson’s capitalizations in what seems like random places for random words. I thought her capital letters could possibly be highlighting certain words that she really wants her readers to pay attention to. I then turned my attention to the capital “H” in “Her,” which made me think of how people capitalize the “H” in “Him” when referring to God. Since Dickinson writes about “Her Message” reaching all the people she cannot see, I think it further stands out that “Her” could very well likely represent God. On the flipside though, it wouldn’t surprise me if the capitalized “H” really doesn’t have anything to do with God because Her Message could be Dickinson's message: Don't Judge Me! But I guess it also wouldn’t surprise me if it does in fact represent God as a woman.