Summary
The poem begins with the promise of a composed letter to the world. The speaker then notes that this letter will be delivered even though the world did not extend the same courtesy of writing to her. She describes the way in which she learned most about the "news" around her from the majesty of the natural sphere. In the second stanza, she states that these wonders in nature still did not reveal all of their mysteries, even with all her endeavors to understand them. She ends by stating that she hopes that her "countrymen" who share her affection for nature understand what she was trying to do with her life and work.
Analysis
For a relatively brief poem, "This is my Letter to the World" showcases Dickinson exploring some of her most difficult and powerful themes: failures of communication, human isolation, and the mysteries of nature. Framed as an attempt to reach out to the world, the poem shows the speaker making an effort to be understood, while acknowledging the loneliness she has experienced. In this way, it is a deeply melancholy poem, clearly marked by the circumstances of Dickinson's own life.
In the poem's opening, the speaker declares her intentions flatly. She states: "This is my letter to the World / That never wrote to Me." The first two lines are immediately filled with hurt. She is making it clear that while she is trying to open up to the world around her, it has not put forward the same effort in understanding her. The next two lines ("The simple News that Nature told— / With tender Majesty") depict the way in which the speaker was able to understand the world, namely through the rich beauty of nature. In this short stanza, the speaker has effectively managed to show the difficulties inherent to her way of life. In trying to decode and unpuzzle the mysteries of nature, she has remained somewhat secluded from the social sphere. She is putting forward a kind of explanation of who she is and what she is trying to do because the world has not made the same gesture toward her. This reference to the sphere of nature is also important in that it shows where she actually has been able to find knowledge and comfort. By using the word "news," which suggests both the factual and mundane information communicated in letters and newspapers, and, in a subtler and more implicit form, the idea of revelation and the "good news" of the Christian Gospel, she is also intimating that nature contains essential truths about the world. This serves the poem by implying that the speaker has tried to render these essential truths in text. This is easy to read biographically, as much of Dickinson's poetry is about nature and depicts speakers trying (and often struggling) to better understand and appreciate it.
In the second stanza, she expands on her earlier ideas about nature. She refers to the way in which nature's "message is committed / to hands" that she "cannot see." She is revealing that for all of her efforts, nature has still remained elusive and irreducible. This has two effects. The first is to highlight the way in which her quest to understand and write about nature is a lifelong one without a clear end. Because its "news" remains cloaked in a certain degree of unknowability, the speaker's efforts have had to be continual. In this way, these lines also reveal how wrapped up in this work the speaker has been. This line about the "message" and "hands" also conveys something important about how the speaker sees herself. She views herself as a kind of intermediary (or messenger) for the "message" and "news" that nature disseminates. The phrase about unseen "hands" adds another dimension to this, revealing the challenges that this project has presented. It shows the way that nature has not fully revealed itself to the speaker. She has been required to slowly work through these moments to extract their meaning. In this regard, these two lines capture a great deal about what the speaker's interests are, how she pursues them, and the impact it has had on her ability to lead a normal (or socially acceptable) life. In showing the difficulty of trying to understand nature, Dickinson also underscores what a lonely journey it can be. In searching for this message, the speaker has had to remain in this mysterious space. The final lines ("For love of Her—Sweet—countrymen— / Judge tenderly—of Me") are an entreaty to her "countrymen," a kind of request to her social world. She asks that, "for love of Her" (referring to nature), they "judge" her (the speaker) "tenderly." She means that she hopes that her fellow countrymen who appreciate nature can understand that her perceived strangeness and social isolation were in the service of trying to grapple with the mysteries of the natural world. In aligning herself with nature, she hopes they see her and her work more clearly. She is asking, as she said in the beginning, for the world to understand her a little better, by communicating what she thinks is the most essential element of her artistic vision: nature's "message" and "news." The poem is asking for the empathy of her countrymen. She wants them to see that all along she has been chasing these messages and mysteries in her writing. She hopes that this explains or elucidates the things they find strange or peculiar about her, but does so without any apology for the way that she is.
The poem follows a simple ABCB rhyme scheme and eschews Dickinson's common use of slant rhyme. This more straightforward formal choice reflects the poem's intentions. The speaker is making an honest declaration about wanting to be understood by the world around her. By electing to follow a standard rhyme pattern, Dickinson gives the impression that this poem is without deception or tricky double meanings. The poem does feature dashes and unconventional use of capitalization. As the poem progresses, the dashes give insight into the speaker's concerned frame of mind. They break up the rhythm of the individual lines. They seem to portray the speaker's anxious wish to not be judged too harshly by her companions, framing each thought as if it is interrupting the previous one. As is often the case in her work, the capitalization serves to make concepts more concrete. In the case of this poem, the capitalization of the words "News," "Message," and "Nature" makes them into more than general ideas. Dickinson is capable of rendering them as concrete things she has been attempting to better understand. By using abstract terms but capitalizing them, she is able to give a sense of their containing definable truths. This is particularly true in the case of "Nature," as Dickinson refers to it as "Her" as a means of personification. If the poem is an appeal toward being seen more clearly by those around her, then these descriptions demonstrate the understanding she was reaching towards.
This poem, in so many ways, feels like one of Dickinson's most straightforwardly autobiographical works. She is discussing loneliness, art, and nature, attempting to make herself better understood by the world that surrounds her and that has rejected her in the past. The relative brevity of the piece and the sincerity of its intentions make it feel like an unadorned gesture. The poem isn't just a letter to the world; it's the beginning of what she hopes will be a correspondence.
