"Their Height in Heaven comforts not --" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

Their Height in Heaven comforts not --[1] Their Glory -- nought to me --[2] 'Twas best imperfect -- as it was --[3] I'm finite -- I can't see --[4] The House of Supposition --[5] The Glimmering Frontier that[6] Skirts the Acres of Perhaps --[7] To Me -- shows insecure --[8] The Wealth I had -- contented me --[9] If 'twas a meaner size --[10] Then I had counted it until[11] It pleased my narrow Eyes --[12] Better than larger values --[13] That show however true --[14] This timid life of Evidence[15] Keeps pleading -- "I don't know."[16]
Poem 696 [F725] "Their Height in Heaven comforts not" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

Ruth Miller sees the 'acid verse' of this poem as Emily taking the opposite view from Thomas Browne who asserted in his Religio Medici, 'I believe. . .that the souls of men know neither contrary nor corruption. . .that the souls of the faithful, as they leave earth, take possession of heaven.' But to Emily this glory of the faithful is no comfort, because she cannot see it. We would have been better off, she claims, if we had been left with just this imperfect life. (1-4) It is all 'Supposition' and 'Perhaps' across the 'Frontier' of death. This leaves us feeling insecure. (5-8) This world's wealth may be smaller, but I had counted it and experienced it until it pleased me with my narrow vision` better than the 'larger values' of some possible heaven. For, however true that show or display of a heaven may be, the evidence for it is such that we can only timidly say 'I don't know.' (9-16)
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