The Earth is Made for Lovers
The first poem by Emily Dickinson
Each of Emily Dickinson’s poems are named after their first line. She never titled or named her poems and so the convention came to be her first line was the title.
This is her first poem in the collection I have. The collection is The Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by R.W. Franklin.
The actual first line is “Awake ye musses nine … and tie my Valentine”.
It is a poem about courtship and courting. It is a poem about coupling and marriage. Dickinson notes the entire world has evolved to embrace coupling with bees and flowers, men and women. “All things do go a courting”.
“on this terrestrial ball”. The whole world is engaged in courtship. It is a celebration in her words.
Emily Dickinson did not know much about astronomy. That does show in this poem. But fitting stars and planets into this poem would be to lose focus. Maybe she knew of Jupiter and Saturn. She knew what the moon was as we see here, “ looketh to see the moon,”. Engaging beyond the moon to the planets are things that are not easily seen without assistance from an instrument. Of course, Disney had not come along with “When you wish upon a star”, while Emily Dickinson had been alive.
