Poetry, oh sweet

Ample make this bed.
Make this bed with awe;
In it wait till judgment break
Excellent and fair.

Be its mattress straight,
Be its pillow round;
Let no sunrise' yellow noise
Interrupt this ground.

Emily Dickinson

This poem is so gorgeous to me. It speaks of love and sex and death. The use of “ample” in the first line – this word is not used enough any more but makes me think of bosoms and bottoms and plenty and comfort. Then the repeat of “make this bed” followed this time with “awe” in the second line elevates it, denotes that something special is happening, something worthy of respect. Emily (like e.e. cummings) is wonderful at putting words together to play off of each other – which I have read referred to as “thought rhyme.” The next two lines are playful, yet also scary and serious – the combination of “judgment” and “break” combines judgment day with dawn but one that is “excellent and fair.” So within this context the bed could now possibly be a grave.

This grave analogy continues in the second stanza yet again it resides next to the cozy imagery of a well-made bed – straight mattress, round pillow. If it is a grave it is a comfortable one. The repetition of the “Be its” of the first two lines also give the sense of prayer, of invocation. I love the “yellow noise” of sunrise – I think this is one of the best descriptions of dawn in the history of writing, and that it is achieved with only two words is what I love most about poetry. The reference to “ground” at the end of that sentence again seems to refer to hallowed ground and the grave. There is something in this poem though that is intensely private and personal – the ample bed wanting no interruptions is so vibrant with sex and life that it seems impossible the poem could also be about death. I am always amazed at how much Emily could pack into eight lines and 34 words.

I encountered this poem for the first time reading William Styron’s “Sophie’s choice” at the age of 13 (my parent’s let me roam the bookshelves of our home at will). In the book Sophie learns of Emily Dickinson in her English language class and it is her search for more of the poetry that introduces her to Nathan, who will become her lover and with whom she will ultimately commit suicide. The poem re-appears throughout the book – not only as the source of the introduction of two of the main characters who will have noisy sex and even noisier fights throughout the novel, but it also serves as a benediction over their suicide (also in bed). The metaphor of bed as grave is intrinsic to this story and I am fascinated by the way that something as spare as this poem could be rich enough to inspire the motifs of an entire novel. The emotional temperature that she so delicately placed into those few words and lines, Styron was able to unpack into a novel of sweeping breadth and tragedy. Even the last devastating lines of the book are taken from this poem, lines in which the narrator Stingo, after having spent the night wandering New York after the suicide of Nathan and Sophie, witnesses daybreak and observes, “This was not judgment day - only morning. Morning: excellent and fair.”