AS Literature: 501 This World is not Conclusion

501 This World is not Conclusion

In this poem, Dickinson explores what lies beyond the human world – and concludes that there are no satisfactory answers to this question. The only complete sentence in the poem is the very first line: ‘This World is not Conclusion.’ There is a certain irony in the fact that this is the only completed thought (signified by the full stop) in the poem. The rest of the poem is structured through a series of thoughts, characterised by Dickinson’s frequent use of the dash, thoughts which are left hanging in the last line of the poem with the final dash used: ‘That nibbles at the soul –‘ Perhaps Dickinson uses this structure to help suggest that there are no answers, that our quest for understanding will always be left incomplete. The mystery of what exists beyond human existence is personified in line 5 with ‘It beckons, and it baffles-‘ suggesting that this is a ‘Riddle’ that humans simply can’t solve, despite the tempting answers that might be on offer.

The most interesting thing for me about the poem is the way it appears to reject any religious argument for what lies beyond the human world. Dickinson's careful use of the word ‘Species’ in line 2 – ‘A Species stands beyond’- can be seen as an allusion to Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859), in itself a text which was seen to challenge conventional religious belief with its presentation of the theory of evolution. Later in the poem, the personification of Faith as a clumsy and naïve fool – ‘Faith slips – and laughs, and rallies - /Blushes’ – emphasises the weaknesses of religious faith in providing a credible argument, and this is enhanced further when we are told that Faith ‘plucks at a twig of Evidence’. The verb ‘plucks’ suggests desperation, and when matched with the noun ‘twig’ (insubstantial – not even a branch!), there is the sense that Dickinson is ridiculing the way that many people cling to religion as an answer to the big questions of human existence. The Church as an institution is also challenged towards the end of the poem, with preaching described as no more than an empty performance through the phrase ‘Much Gesture’ and the suggestion that ‘Strong Hallelujahs roll’ off the tongue like hot air – sounding good, but amounting to nothing. Dickinson’s conclusion - if she reaches one – is about the failure of religion rather than what the answer to the mysteries of life are. In using the analogy of drugs in the final two lines of the poem ('Narcotics cannot still the Tooth/That nibbles at the soul - '), drugs which might dull the pain of toothache but will never actually cure the source of the pain, she makes the point that whilst religion might appear to provide the answers, actually this is a false solution, one which perhaps keeps people quiet and docile but stops them from questioning and challenging accepted beliefs.

Link this poem with 721 and 465.