Out of the Blue

In yesterday’s post I shared Dickinson’s poem “I watched the Moon around the House,” and in particular, I discussed the final word of the poem, “Blue.”  Did the color simply represent an expanse of sky, or something more – perhaps an infinite ethereal region beyond the stretch of air and a location of eternal, transcendent happiness? 

To expand on this, I thought I would look into how and how often Dickinson used the word “blue.”

First, I looked up the word “blue” simply by typing “define blue” into Google just to see what would pop up.  Of course, the two most obvious definitions popped up first: the color and the feeling of depression.
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Other definitions included "explicit content" (“blue movies”), "a small butterfly" (called “a blue”), "rigidly religious," "to make or become blue," "to wash with bluing" (“they blued the shirts and starched the uniforms”), and even "to recklessly spend money" (“"they blued it all on sweets, toys, and cigarettes").

I’d not heard  that last one before, but for that definition and example, the online dictionary added, “mid 19th century: perhaps a variant of blow.”  Hmm…wouldn’t that be “blew,” as in “they BLEW it all on sweets, toys and cigarettes”?

Dickinson used the word “blue” in 30 different poems, and most often she used the word to describe color (“a wild blue sky,” a “blue sea,” etc.) and birds (a “blue jay”).  At times the word “blue,” as the color, would stand  alone to represent “the thing,” often the sky or stars. For example, “Bring me the Sunset in a Cup” includes these lines:

Tell me what time the weaver sleeps
Who spun the breadths of blue

The final stanza of “The Moon was but a chin of gold” states this:

Her Bonnet is the Firmament--
The Universe—Her Shoe--
The Stars—the Trinkets at Her Belt--
Her Dimities—of Blue--

​However, Dickinson used the word “blue” to mean other things as well.  As a matter of fact, the online Dickinson lexicon lists thirteen definitions within her 30 “blue” poems (see below). 

Of course, some of her uses of “blue” are most certainly open to interpretation. For example, in “I taste a liquor never brewed,” there is this:

Inebriate of air – am I – 
And Debauchee of Dew – 
Reeling – thro' endless summer days – 
From inns of molten Blue – 

And, of course, one of Dickinson’s more (most?) famous uses of “blue” comes in “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died”:
   
          – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –

With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz --
Between the light - and me –

One of my favorites of Dickinson’s “blue” poems is the brief but extraordinarily profound and provocative “The Brain – is wider than the Sky”:

​That first line, for me, always calls to mind Thoreau’s quote, “The universe is wider than our views of it,” suggesting that our personal experiences and knowledge are limited, and the true nature and extent of the universe are far beyond our comprehension.  However, Dickinson’s poem goes even deeper.  

Check out that final stanza.  What do you make of that?  Did God make our Brain – or did our Brain make our God?  Did a creator give us Voice (And they will differ -- if they do / As Syllable from Sound")  – or did we give voice to a creator?  I suppose one could argue either side of that -- till in the face --  blue.