Emily Dickinson never became a member of the church although she lived in a typical New England Puritan community all her life. The well-known lines, "Some - keep the Sabbath - go to church - / I - keep it - staying at home -" (P-236 [B]; J-324),1 suggest his challenge to the existing church and Christianity of his time in particular. And his calling the Deity such terms as “thief,” “banker” (P-39; J-49) and “a jealous God” (P-1752; J-1719) clearly reveals his antagonism against the Deity Christian. God. In fact, she persistently refused to be baptized even when her family and close friends at Mount Holyoke Women's Seminary chose to bow in faith before the Christian Lord. It is no exaggeration to say that Dickinson sought to deviate from the orthodox religious beliefs prevalent in the society in which she lived. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay However, Dickinson was an avid reader of the Bible, and as Fordyce R. Bennett states in the preface to A Reference Guide to the Bible in Poetry by Emily Dickinson, "Dickinson found story and situation, syntax, symbolism and imagery, inspiration and much more in the King James Bible" (xi). That is, no matter how uncomfortable he felt in the Christian circle of the New England community of his day, he strove to "keep the Sabbath" (P-236 [B]; J-324) in his own way through the most reliable, the Christian Scripture, which came into her hands quite easily. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to discuss Dickinson's poetry with reference primarily to the Bible, the Book of Revelation. One of his poems asks a question: “To that ethereal crowd / Have we not each the right / To belong furtively” (P-1639; J-1596). To find an answer to this type of question, nothing would have given more insight than the Apocalypse: it literally reveals the "ethereal" world. And Dickinson herself knew the answer lay in the Bible, for she replied, "For Prose--Mr Ruskin--Sir Thomas Browne--and the Revelations" (L-261)2 when Thomas W. Higginson asked her what her favorite books were. Of course there were many other prose writings he could have mentioned, but he dared to choose these three as the sources of his inspiration. Needless to say, all three were special to her. Therefore, referring to the image of heaven in the Book of Revelation, I will consider how Dickinson's poetry outlines one of the most important and sometimes enigmatic Christian doctrines, the idea of ​​heaven. The following poem provides us with appropriate materials for discussion: went to Heaven - It was a little Town - Lighted - with a Ruby - Turned - with the Duvet - Quieter - than the fields In full Dew - Beautiful - as Pictures - No Man drew - People - like the Moth - By Melineno - frames - Duties - by Gossamer -Ed Eider - names -Almost -glad -I - could be -'Among such a unique Society - (P-577 [B]; J-374)Written circa 1862, one of the years mirabiles (most productive years) of Dickinson's life, this poem portrays a truly marvelous visu spectacle of the kingdom of heaven in earthly images while John sees heaven in terms of earthly material images of jewels and treasures. In the poet's colorful images, heaven is "small town" like her hometown, Amherst, Massachusetts. What illuminates the country is "a Ruby", the lucky stone of July, which recalls summer or the meridian of life. He tells us, in one of his letters, "my only sketch, profile, of Paradise is a great blue sky, bluer and larger than the largest I ever saw in June [. . .]" (L-185) , in which he comparesthe kingdom of God in the summer sky. We can safely say that it associates paradise with the scenery of summer on earth. But at the same time, Dickinson herself knows very well: "Of the existence of Heaven / All we know / Is the uncertain certainty-" (P-1421; J-1411). “No man” can paint the “Beautiful” picture of the city, no matter how much it may resemble Amherst in the summer. “Heaven” is after all a place created by each person's mind. As a result, he diligently applies himself to the description of paradise and coordinates the lines with striking images such as "People - like the Moth - / Of Mechline - frames -". The "Duties" of the moth-like inhabitants are as thin as a spider's web, while in this world men are burdened with obligations; their names are light as down, though all cling to them in earthly life. Here in Dickinson's sketch of the sky we see no images of heavy loads growing above all the light. The unrestricted inhabitants survive as they wish, without concern for fame, rank or social position. The poet tries to prove, in short, that the life of people in God's paradise is completely new to the living and they are confident with his ingenuity in describing the mystical region that no one has ever seen, in the end "consider whether herself,” to borrow Jane Donahue Eberwein's phrase, “as a particularly promising candidate for heaven” (263). What must be further noted, however, is that the earthly imagery in the poem actually derives from John's description of heaven that we find in the Book of Revelation. Regarding chapter twenty-one of Revelation, critics agree that Dickinson loved it, calling it a "gem chapter" (Sewall 347; Wolff 288). The Bible has a passage concerning heaven as follows: And [the angel] that spake with me had a golden reed to measure the city, [. . .] the city is square, and the length thereof is as great as the breath: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand stadia. Its length, width and height are equal [. . .]. And the building of its walls was of jasper; and the city was of pure gold, like clear glass. And the foundations of the city wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. (Rev. 21,15-19)3The cubic city with sides of "twelve thousand furlongs" (about two thousand two hundred kilometers) is not "a small city"; in this respect the narrator of poem 577 is wrong. But if we remember the phrase from the Bible: "A day is before the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day" (2 Peter 3.8), we can immediately understand that God's scale is different from the human one. beings; and that even an apparently large city could be "small" in the celestial dimension. And the city in Dickinson's poem symbolized by "a ruby" obviously echoes the celestial structures adorned with "jasper" and "all manner of precious stones," even though the Book of Revelation does not specifically mention "a ruby." Dickinson's careful reading of the "Chapter of Gems" inspired her to write the poem. Furthermore, in addition to the "Chapter of Gems", some other parts of the Apocalypse have an influence on the content of the poem. To give a few examples, the notion of heaven cannot easily become “Images” because “what the Spirit says” about the afterlife is intelligible only to “[he] who has an ear” (Revelation 2:11). And the "People" wrapped in moth-like clothes with "Mechlin" and given "Eider - names -" reminds us of the testimony and its meaning illustrated in the Bible: Even in Sardis you have some names that have not defiled their garments; and they will walk with me in white robes, because they are worthy of it. The winner will be dressed in white robes; and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father andbefore his angels. (Rev. 3.4-5) The poet believes that she could live in a world where the "People" are dressed in white and where their names are announced majestically before God. In this sense, poem 577 which narrates the life of the people in the New Jerusalem is Dickinson's version of the Book of Revelation. When she declares, "I - could be - / 'Mong such a unique / Society -", she is assured of her willingness to join the saints in heaven, being "dressed in fine linen, pure and white" (Rev. 19.8). Indeed, Dickinson's relationship to whiteness is worthy of further examination. she wore only white dresses around 1861 in her secluded life and never changed her unique style until her death, as one of her acquaintances, Mabel Loomis Todd, reports: "Her [i.e. Austin's] sister Emily is called Amherst 'the myth.' He hasn't left the house for fifteen years [. Opinions differ as to why he chose such clothes. From a feminist perspective, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue that "white was in the nineteenth century a distinctively feminine color" (615) and that Dickinson "escape[d] the restrictions of her culture by ironically imposing [white clothing]" ( 621) according to one biographer, Cynthia Griffin Wolff, was "a visible sign of perpetual mourning" after her father's death (507); However, as we noted in the discussion of poem 577, Dickinson longed for the Kingdom of God, where the chosen people are always dressed in white. It is likely that her white dress demonstrated an unmistakable clue from the poet: she was certain that she would become a member of heaven The first stanza of poem 307 (J-271) gives authenticity to this point:A solemn thing - was - I said -A woman - white - be -And wear - if. God should deem me fit - His blameless mystery - With "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues" (Rev. 7.9), the poet in white robes stands before God, purified from earthly impurities. Dickinson's first poem quizzically states, "There are those who rest, arise. / Can I explain the heavens? / How still the enigma lies!" (P-68; J-89). But as we have observed, he manages to magnify the visionary images of the "heavens" with his own words. Beth Maclay Doriani very aptly points out that “[Dickinson's] poems call their readers to consider what lies beyond the visible world” (94). We humans are not allowed to solve the “riddle” about the sky while we are alive; instead we are allowed to imagine heaven in the form of painting, music or poetry. Dickinson also peppered his verse with the visionary images of heaven discovered as a result of his persistent search for the afterlife and his meticulous reading of the Book of Revelation. And readers with the same kind of speculation about heaven are drawn to her poetry, even in the early twenty-first century, when she lets them into her vision of heaven.Notes1. Dickinson's poems are substantially reprinted according to Franklin's three-volume variorum edition, The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Subsequent citations from these volumes appear in parentheses as the letter "P", followed by each number. Also, the numbers given to the poems in Johnson's The Poems of Emily Dickinson are indicated after the letter "J" for reference.2. Dickinson's letters are taken from The Letters of Emily Dickinson. Subsequent references to this edition are cited in parentheses in the text with the capital letter "L", identified by numbers.3. All scriptural quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible, the version Dickinson knew. Works Cited Bennett, Fordyce R. A Reference Guide to the Bible in Emily Dickinson's Poetry. Lanham:, 1964.