The second poem I chose to close read and analyze was the piece “Flowers – Well- if anybody.”
First published in 1890 and originally written on a page with another poem, “Flowers – Well – if anybody” is a dedication to one of Dickinson’s favorite subjects and themes. This poem transparently expresses a deep love and appreciation for something incredibly pure, beautiful, and of the natural world. If anything, this piece gives us an insight into the simple purity of Dickinson’s appreciations.
In the first line, she immediately takes a step back, seemingly redirecting her thoughts on paper. The subject is initially and clearly one that, for her, requires focus and complete thoughtfulness. By incorporating hyphens, she demonstrates a pause or redirection in her thought process. At the time, this speaks what ecstasy or “extasy” was noted as; a pleasure so complete that it absolved thought or reasoning. So defining the ecstasy of this beautiful thing is inherently contradictory, because ecstasy defies definition. It’s clear that this one small pleasure to anyone else completely raptures the speaker.
She further emphasizes the overwhelming sensation, the idea that she cannot actually withstand the beauty and pleasure that she is brought through these small gifts. The severity to which she enjoys them elicits questions symbolism: is she actually referring to flowers or is it potentially a symbolic subject? The specifics of origin suggest that it’s not, but limiting Dickinson is not a mistake I’m will to make as others have done.
The speaker sets the seen like a challenge with a reward, implying an actual desire for an answer, while maintaining a disbelief that it’s possible to find one. She challenges “men” and “him” however it is unclear whether she is actually focused specifically on men or that is more of a general term referring to people overall that would have fit the time period.
She goes on to humanize and personify the flowers she speaks about, giving them “faces” with “pathos.” Also, similarly to her poem “Nobody knows this little rose,” she makes travelers out of the flowers, or pilgrims, traveling from St. Domingo.
Ultimately, she ends on a note of high esteem, holding the flowers to a beauty that is beyond her own. She humbles herself and elevates her subject drastically with the ending. One of the original manuscripts shows this last line written on the next page alone, adding to a sort of visual finality.
The questions this piece elicit have to do with Dickinson’s message. Is she emphasizing floral beauty more so than her own lack thereof, or is the final line almost like a footnote? The separate published versions of the piece differ in stanza length and line breaks, as well as hyphen placement in length. What do these small mechanical changes add or take away from the poem? Why change it at all?
