What is the poem -"there is a solitude of space" by emily dickinson really about?

Question

There is a solitude of space
by Emily Dickinson

There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself—
Finite infinity.

i need help with what this poem is about, the tone of the poem, what the "profounder site" and the "polar privacy" mean. thanks :)

Answer 1

As with most of her poems, I think she is talking about solitude - of death. the speaker views this solitude to be as vast and limitless as that of the open sea.society views death as solitude but this is less profound when compared to "that polar privacy" (the extreme abstract existential loneliness/alonenness) when "A soul admitted to itself"(when the soul is enjoined to the all-encompassing/embracing eternal soul).

As often happens, you got to appreciate Emily's poems against the large themes of her poetry, solitude, human frailty, death. Her images often tend to be drawn from nature to illustrate abstract surealistic and existential aspects of human nature.

I'd say the tone is serious and philosophical with a tinge of resignation. The general mood is of lamentation about the soul's precarious and uncertain and unspeakable solitude that is lost to the general society's fathomable comprehension.

"profounder site" is the location of the eternal soul into which upon death each soul flows and conjoins.

"polar privacy" is an image that may allude to the unknowable location of eternal soul.


wow! gosh! that's that my modest wayward attempt at one of Emily's complex pieces. read more about her life history.

good luck

Answer 2

I'm not quite sure, but I think she's talking about being alone is not really as bad as being with society. That in reality even in society we are all alone in a way. And that being truly alone is to be unalone. I'm not sure if I understand it myself but that's what I got from it.