"The Show is not the Show"

By Emily Dickinson
[Analysis]
The Show is not the Show [1]
But they that go -- [2]
Menagerie to me [3]
My Neighbor be -- [4]
Fair Play -- [5]
Both went to see -- [6]
Poem 1206 [F1270]
"The Show is not the Show"
Analysis by David Preest
[Poem]
On his first visit to Emily in August 1870 Thomas Higginson had asked her if she did not feel a lack of contact with society, and Emily
had replied, 'I never thought of conceiving that I could ever have the slightest approach to such a want in all future time (L342a).' Despite
this strong assertion, Higginson seems to have suggested to her in a letter of 1872 that it might be good for her to visit him at his new home
at Newport (Rhode Island). Emily concludes her reply (L381) to this letter with the words,
Thank you for the "Lesson." I will study it though hitherto
Menagerie to me
My neighbour be.
Your Scholar
In other words Emily is saying in the whole poem, 'I don't wish to visit the Show at Newport, because the Menagerie of the Show is
basically just the people that go, and I can see from my bedroom window my own Menagerie of the neighbours who walk past. Newport
visitors and people who stay at Amherst are both studying the 'Fair [amusing] Play' of human beings.'
It is just possible that Emily may have remembered an article in the Springfield Republican of 14 September 1864 which satirised the social
season at Newport under the heading 'The Human Menagerie.'
Top