The Soul Selects Her Own Society by Emily Dickinson | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Soul Selects Her Own Society is a poem by Emily Dickinson that she probably wrote in 1862. Emily Dickinson hardly ever published her massive stock of 1800 poems. Only her sister stumbled upon the prolific collection and took the liberty to publish the massive literary work. The poem was published in 1891 in a collection of her works under the title Poems, which was edited and published by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd. In this poem, the poetess celebrates the virtues of an independent and mostly solitary life. The poetess envisions her soul as a queenly figure who chooses her company carefully, without regard for worldly status or prestige. And then “shuts the Door,” refusing to admit anyone else—even if “an Emperor be kneeling / Upon her mat—.” Indeed, the soul often chooses no more than a single person from “an ample nation” and then closes “the Valves of her attention” to the rest of the world. The “one” she allows into her soul maybe someone she loves romantically, but more likely, it is the one person who understands her soul as she does theirs.

Structure of The Soul selects her own Society:

The poem is composed of 12 lines arranged in three stanzas of four lines each, or three quatrains. Emily chose irregular meter in this poem yet, kept her favourite meter of iambic trimeter with occasional use of iambic tetrameter. The quatrains seem to follow a simple rhyming scheme of ABAB though Emily used half rhyme in stanzas 2 and 3 by using words “gate” and “mat” also, “one” and “stone” that do not perfectly rhyme but partially.

The poetess used Personification, Imagery, Symbolism, Simile, Alliteration, Assonance, and Consonance in the poem.

Themes of The Sol selects her own Society:

The major theme of the poem is self-reliance and Individuality. Dickinson is remembered as a reserved, reclusive woman, with few good friends. Emily justifies her decision to lead a mostly solitary life. The speaker argues that the soul (functioning here as a stand-in for the speaker herself) naturally rejects the outside world in favor of her own inner circle. In doing so, the speaker champions individuality and self-reliance in a society that often values neither of these qualities. The poem suggests it is the best practice to keep one’s inner life reserved for a select “one” or few. It is the best policy to open the door for those people and then shut it again. This means that no one can get in, no matter their status unless they were selected for their pure intentions. The soul connects to a single person or a few people on a deeper level. One that goes beyond wealth or fame.

Summary of The Soul Selects Her Own Society:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-4

The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more —

Emily often didn’t choose any title for her poems. In this case, too, the very first line of the poem was chosen as the title later on when her poetic collection Poems was posthumously published. The poetess is talking about the soul of an individual, whether her’s or anyone else’s, selects the person, or perhaps people, she wants to grow close to, and then “shuts the Door”.

Emily used the pronoun ‘her’ to denote the feminine for the artful, sensitive, superior soul.

The very first line of the poem is the longest and unbroken, and it is written in iambic pentameter. The poetess used assonance in the first line, repeating the vowel sound of / e / . Once the soul selects her companion or companions, she allows nobody else to enter the close domain of her divine majority.

Stanza 2 Lines 5-8

Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing —
At her low Gate —
Unmoved — an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat —

The poetess describes the strength and determination of the soul in these lines. The poetess says that it does not matter who comes knocking at the door of her soul. It could be an Emperor “kneeling” on the mat of Chariots “pausing— / At her low Gate”. Neither of these things would convince her to open the metaphorical door to her heart. The soul only opens for those it selects for reasons that she understands.

In line 5, the poetess uses Symbolism, using Chariots to symbolize status, wealth, and grandeur and they pause at her low Gate, that is, at her humble gate. Emily used assonance again with the sound of /o/ in “Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing.” The poetess uses repetition (technical Anaphora) of ‘Unmoved’ to suggest the determination of the soul's position despite royalty appearing ready to kneel on her Mat.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

I’ve known her — from an ample nation —
Choose One —
Then — close the Valves of her attention —
Like Stone —

The poetess further asserts the exclusive selection process of the Soul and says that she has known “her” to choose “one” from the “ample nation” of people who want to gain entry into her innermost self. And once she chooses her companion/s, she then closes the “Valves of her attention— / Like Stone”. The soul is certainly a part of a country's society (ample nation), yet, it can choose One. The poetess employs a Metaphor using ‘Valve’ which implies a one-way flow ... a valve allows flow in one direction only. That is, now the whole attention of the soul is only upon the companion she already chose, and for others, the soul shuts down like a stone. The stone symbolizes something rigid, heavy, and weighty; the stone is hard to move, it's strong, it is unmovable.

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