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Poems of Emily Dickinson: The Soul Selects Her Own Society

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From: Monarch Notes
Date: 19630101
Author:Dickinson, Emily

Dickinson, Emily
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
The Soul Selects Her Own Society

The first stanza of this well-known poem suggests that a "soul," or a
person (it may be either, as will be seen below) may choose his "society," and
that such a choice is "divine majority," cannot be questioned: "On her divine
majority/ Obtrude no more." In the second stanza the pressures against this
choice are enumerated; but she - the soul, the speaker - remains "unmoved"
before "the chariot's pausing/ At her low gate," and before the "emperor . . .
kneeling/ Upon her mat." The third stanza is reflective commentary, ...

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