NOTES

This poem, written in the early 1860's, is essentially a history of Dickinson's relationship with Susan Gilbert, tracing their years as schoolgirls together, describing Dickinson's adoration for Gilbert, and always returning to the reality that, ultimately, Gilbert is unattainable.

Peru: The following description of Peru is from Prescott's History of the Conquest of Peru, a book in the Dickinson library. This passage is meant to describe the wonder with which early Spanish conquerers of South America viewed the Peruvian coastline, an image equally exotic and rich for Emily Dickinson. "So immense is the scale on which Nature works in these regions, that it is only when viewed from a great distance, that the spectator can, in any degree, comprehend the relation of several parts to the stupendous whole. Few of the works of Nature, indeed, are calculated to produce impressions of higher sublimity than the aspect of this coast, as it is gradually unfolded to the eye of the mariner sailing on the distant waters of the Pacific; where mountain is seen to rise above mountain, and Chimborazo, with its glorious canopy of snow, glittering far above the clouds, crowns the whole as with a celestial diademî (Prescott, 734).

Diadems: "in modern usage, the mark or badge of royalty, worn on the head; a crown; figuratively, supreme power" (Webster's Dictionary, 1856)

India: "a country in Asia so named for the river Indus" (Webster's, 1856)

Golconda: originally an ancient city in India famous for its diamonds, now in ruins. (Oxford Dictionary, 1995)

This poem is #299 in Johnson's Complete Poems. For an image of the original manuscript as transcribed by Martha Nell Smith and Ellen Hart in Open Me Carefully, follow this link to the Dickinson Electronic Archive (password protected).