Summary of This Is My Letter To The World-
The poem, presented by Dickinson in the form of a letter, as she mentions it in its
very outset, is possibly addressed to the world, and it could be to the planet Earth
or the whole universe, the reading public or the entire humankind. The greatness
of this poem lies in the fact that not just a single meaning could be implied to its
understanding; what is literally deciphered through the lines is only the surface
explication, and a diversity to which it points at is commendable. It can be read as
a narrative poem, through which the poet is trying to present herself to the zone,
“the World,” that never seemed to have acknowledged her or her efforts.
However, it can be noted that the poet is never overwhelmed by a feeling of
contempt, or is disheartened. Even if the communication is seen to be one-sided,
it continues un-reckoned. This poem is supposed to have been written at the time
when Dickinson first began her career as a poet; and so it could even be read as
an expression of the poet who is attempting to belong to this world. Nevertheless,
Dickinson constantly detaches herself from the human race, being of the introvert
nature.
The letter presented can metaphorically be seen to be the enclosed document
which contains the experience of the artist who has lived a life of loneliness, and
has been misunderstood throughout her lifetime. The concluding lines of the first
stanza saying,”The simple News that Nature told-/ With tender Majesty,” possibly
refers to what her letters contain. These lines clearly indicate the poet’s
intentions, which is to transmit what she has learned from nature, the new
knowledge, to the world around her. And this is what is desired by every great
poet, to make the unknown world know the unaccomplished bounds through the
poetic faculty of his/her mind or aesthetic capacity. The phrase used
herein,”tender Majesty,” therefore, explicitly symbolises her desperation.
The second stanza begins with a reference to nature, that continues to indicate
Dickinson’s dedication in writing poems about the nature she observes around.
Thus, the nature seems to mean the logos, the divine power and the center, so to
say according to the structuralists’ viewpoint, that acts as a guiding force to her.
The nature, she believes, continues to give her inspirational wisdom, assisting her
as the muse, in her writings. In other words it can be said that poetry is a medium
through which the Nature communicates to the world; and in this respect, poet
acts as an imitator. The “Hands” that the poet speaks of in the running line
implies the hands of the future generation, the posterity, to which she would
leave her legacy, her art, to be deciphered, that which could be of some meaning
to their lives.
The concluding lines of the poem seems to a plea from the poet, who expresses
her desire to the future generation, the “Sweet-countrymen,” to have a
compassionate understanding of her letter. The poet makes this appeal in the
name of the nature itself, for it is this Nature that has been an inspirational force
in the course of her writing career. This appeal, however, sounds piteous; for it
seems to predict a negative response from the reader’s side. The poem comes to
an end with an earnest request to the reader to think of the speaker’s plight and
to show mercy accordingly.
Critical Analysis of This Is My Letter To The World-
The sense of home, a place to which one primarily belongs, is indirectly
established in the poem “This is my Letter to the World”. It is an evident reflection
of the poet’s sense of place, her sense of belonging in her own secluded world
and to her “Sweet countrymen”. The letter can be seen as an expression of the
poet’s wish or desire to belong to the poetic pantheon. It suggests that the poet
has a communion with the Nature, that speaks to her with kindness and
generosity, acting as her guiding force. It is through her poetry that the Nature
would speak to the humankind and, therefore, she expresses her desire to the
future generation to have a compassionate and clear understanding of her letter,
that which would act as a relic to them. Though the words used by the poet
herein are simple and ordinary, they tend to pose difficulty in its crystal analysis;
this is so because the poet by mixing the concrete with the abstract extends the
meaning to a different realm or a new way of looking at the world.
