A look into Fascicle 20

When trying to better understand the fascicles of Emily Dickinson, it is difficult to know where to begin. Many of the poems bear a similar theme, as they were all written and put in a particular order by Emily herself. In this post, I'll attempt to do just that, starting off logically with the last poem in the work, number 413.

Heaven is so far of the Mind
That were the Mind dissolved -
The Site - of it - by Architect
Could not again be proved -

'Tis Vast - as our Capacity -
As fair - as our idea -
To Him of adequate desire
No further 'tis, than Here

I want to mainly focus on the notion of "Heaven" in this poem. As any avid reader of Dickinson knows, "Heaven" is not what it seems. It is a place that should be paradise, but is frequently spurned in favor of Earth, as if to say "live in the moment." Previously in the fascicle, and particularly in "I reason Earth is Short -," we learn that Heaven is the ultimate unknown unknowable. Barring near death light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel scenarios, no one can actually know what will happen in the afterlife. We are left with evidence from holy texts and the like to base our theories of the afterlife, but, as Dickinson says, "what of that?" As the "what of that" is repeated in "I reason," so is poem 413. She reminds the reader of this fearful finality, and tells them that one "of adequate desire" would only desire to live in the here and now. Basically, I believe the majority of the other poems in this fascicle hinge on this idea of living days as they come, and not attempting to envisage the later.