Emily Dickson Poem on Lincoln?

[STS Lincolnite]

(09-15-2016 09:21 AM)Gene C Wrote:  In reading this, do you think "Her" in the last line refers to the United States?
Or, could it be the person who died, which would make this poem about a woman?

"Or Flag subsist or Fame export
Her deathless Syllable."

Gene, when I read that, I get the impression that "her" is a personification of "fame" in the line above. Fame is exporting her deathless syllable, may be another way to state it. To me it seems to say that although the subject of the poem is gone, he or she has achieved a level of fame that won't allow him/her to truly die (metaphorically of course). Fame is a deathless syllable because those with fame never die in the sense they are never forgotten. And that would certainly seem to lend credence to the idea the poem was about Lincoln. The time in which he lived, the person he was, and maybe most of all, the way in which he died, cemented the fact he would never be forgotten

I'm certainly not saying my impression is correct, just the way I interpret the poem. That's one thing I like about poetry. It can be interpreted in many ways by many people so that they might bring a different meaning to each reader.

I have never read Dickinson's correspondence to know if she ever expressed her feelings toward Lincoln himself. I do know that her father was a Congressman and was among those that, after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, broke away from their political affiliations to start their own party. A party that would come to be known as the Republican Party.

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I also found this little tidbit on Emily Dickinson and the Civil War.

https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/civil_war