Universe or me by Duong Trinh

Of Bronze — and Blaze —

The North — tonight —

So adequate — it forms —

So preconcerted with itself —

So distant — to alarms —

An Unconcern so sovereign

To Universe, or me —

Infects my simple spirit

With Taints of Majesty —

Till I take vaster attitudes —

And strut upon my stem —

Disdaining Men, and Oxygen,

For Arrogance of them —

My Splendors, are Menagerie —

But their Compete-less Show

Will entertain the Centuries

When I, am long ago,

An Island in dishonored Grass —

Whom none but Daisies — know.

I find this poem an anthem of human pride and self-awareness. 

In the first part, although the author spends half of it acclaiming the North’s beauty, she describes it to be composed of both bronze and blaze. They shouldn’t go together because bronze not only never shines like a blaze but also conducts heat the lowest out of common metals. Therefore, the combination of bronze and fire is a sarcastic expression that the North is beautiful in the utmost disharmony, as contrasted to its adequate, preconcerted, and distant form. 

The North stands out as a perfect and sovereign figure to the Universe. Unfortunately, its beauty is always observed in the evening when light is gone, and people have no sufficient capacity to make sure of their visions. The misleading visualization of the North is then likely to lead to the infection of the author’s simple spirit. Placing herself in the same level with the Universe, Emily Dickinson, on the one hand, asserts her unique position. Despite looking towards the North with the whole Universe, she deems herself as the only one deserving universal bigness for detecting the North’s imperfection. 

On the other hand, narrowing down the Universe to one individual, Dickinson seems to imply the shallowness of the Universe. Why am “I” the only one that matters, knowing taints of Majesty? The infection may also come from the lack of vaster attitudes, which arrogant Men and Oxygen hinder her from having. She is probably talking about death at that point when strutting upon Oxygen is not different from showing a disdaining view on life. One could understand this as a bitter statement that even though she singles herself out as the only knowledgeable being, she is still unable to resist the fact that part of her, a.k.a her stem, is made from disdaining Men and Oxygen. She must endure this situation until she dies. Nevertheless, one could take death more wildly as freedom because the author, with vaster attitudes at that later time, neither needs infectious Northern Majesty nor shows any fear for her dying moments.

In the second part, she mocks the notion of immortality, which I think people of all times worship. Her complete-less splendors are merely humiliation since she feels her true self is like a captivated animal in Menagerie. People will enjoy the immortality of the one like her, who might have died centuries ago with dishonor. From this, she suggests that immortality is obtained from appearance, not knowledge of inner worlds. In other words, immortality doesn’t exist because such a monumental being as her can fake what she wants others to see so that they will remember her forever by her immortal looks.