Couriers Within: The Creative Force in the Art of Emily Dickinson

Mt. Holyoke Seminary whether to become a church member, Dickinson weighed the decision carefully (Johnson 14-16). Her ultimate declination hinged on the fact that she could see God in everything, even though she complained: "It is hard for me to give up the world" (qtd in Johnson 14). The reason that the things of the world held her so was that those things hinted of their Creator. She perceived that church ritual and automatic prayer were simply the means of following the paths of other mortals. She could make her own path and that is what she did. Her poems rely heavily on Biblical allusion. She could read and understand and recreate--she had no need of listening to endless sermons. As she grew up, she had heard many sermons, and her fertile mind was able not only to remember them but also employ their form as a poetic guide. But she blazed her own trail as she pursued her own religious quest. We do well to remember her poetic claim that the "Soul selects her own Society." In attempting to identify Dickinson's creative force, Rich labels it "daemonic." She writes,

Dickinson's biographer and editor Thomas Johnson has said that she often felt herself possessed by a demonic force, particularly in the years 1861-1862, when she was writing at the height of her drive. (62)

What Johnson actually states does not quite parallel Rich's interpretation:

The daemonic force that now possess her she might or might not be able to aster, and she saw the challenge quite literally as a wrestling match. (74)

Johnson's words do no indicate that Dickinson gave the label "demonic" to her wrestling with the Ultimate Truth. In fact, what Dickinson calls the force is "Couriers within." Johnson cites her own description of the creative force:

Alone, I cannot be
The Hosts--do visit me--
Recordless Company--
Who baffle Key--

They have no Robes--nor Names--
No Almanacs--nor Climes
But general Homes--
Like Gnomes--

Their Coming may be known
By Couriers within--
Their going--is not--
For they're never gone-- (qtd in Johnson 74)

In this poem the Biblical allusion to "Hosts" represents "Immortality," according to Johnson (75). Dickinson's struggle does not resemble the same kind of "demonic" struggle described by feminists like Rich; instead her sensitivity arose from inner prompting such as the desire to understand what happens to the soul after the death of the body. As Yogananda explains psychologically there is a great difference between mere emotional touchiness and true spiritual sensitivity ("Psychology" 5); the demonic possesssion

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