Like Emerson, Whitman speaks of an "intercourse with heaven and earth." Both men create sexual metaphors for the union between self and sublime which occurs when the dividing line is crossed. Whitman traverses the line between the "I" and the sublime by drawing the body into the text and locating the sublime experience in physical sensation. He rejoices in "a few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms" in the second section of Leaves of Grass, and focuses the reader's attention to the process of experiencing the sublime as at once a process of crossing physical boundaries (kisses and embraces) and a process by which the sublime enters the Soul. (CLICK HERE FOR A IMAGE OF THE SUBLIME LANDSCAPE.) Dickinson also sexualizes the relationship between the self and the sublime. She maintains that "God is a distant -- stately Lover" (130). However, the intercourse or union which both Emerson and Whitman achieve is denied in Dickinson's work. When she describes "His silver call" as coming from "the other side," I read this as a reference to divinity or the sublime[1]. Dickinson's alienation from "the other side," in contrast to Emerson and Whitman's access, is of particular interest. She writes, "I'd tunnel `till my groove -- pushed sudden thro' to his," clearly creating a scene of sexualized union which is impeded. Dickinson locates the sublime externally (as does Emerson) and structures the impossibility of sublime experience (unlike Emerson or Whitman) as a recognition of the impenetrability of the Not Me, as well as the Me.

TO READ MORE ABOUT RESISTANCE TO DEMOCRARY AND ISOLATION IN DICKINSON'S WORK, CLICK HERE

TO READ MORE ABOUT THE BODY FIGURED IN TEXT AND THE TEXT AS A BODY, CLICK HERE

TO READ MORE ABOUT FORM, CLICK HERE

TO RETURN TO MY INTRODUCTION, CLICK HERE