This World is not Conclusion

When “This World is not Conclusion” references the discipline of philosophy, it does so using synecdoche, a figure of speech in which a part rhetorically stands in for a larger whole. Here, philosophy represents all academic and scholarly knowledge. While the world “beyond” and its “species” (Line 2) simultaneously “beckon” and “baffle” (Line 5) the mind, seemingly inviting ongoing speculation into its mystery, “Philosophy, don’t know—/ And through a Riddle, at the last—/ Sagacity, must go” (Lines 6-8). Academic study will ultimately never understand this subject because in the end, academics are also human: Eternity “puzzles scholars” (Line 9) just as it confuses everyone else. Thus, “sagacity” or judgement and discernment “must go” in order for a person to reach out to eternity outside the normal structures of logic and intellect. Traditional schools of thought, represented by philosophy, are ultimately inadequate to solve the “riddle” of the world to come.

While defining the various lengths people have gone to and the sufferings they have endured in order to “gain” (Line 10) admission into the world “beyond” (Line 2), Dickinson makes mention of crucifixion. She writes, “To gain it, Men have borne / Contempt of Generations / And Crucifixion” (Lines 10-12).