Emily Dickinson 632 Analysis

Emily Dickinson’s poem 632 is so full of poetic nuances that it makes one wonder up to what extent were the poet’s intentions and what was not. Well but, what does it even matter- right? Although I have failed to wrap my head around the entirety of the poem, I shall nevertheless endeavor to provide meaning to a few lines I have found intriguing.
This poem is basically an ode to the human intellect, comparing it to vast objects; ideas even, to show what it is capable of. At the same time, it shows insecurity when confronted with the question whether there really is no limit to this power.
Dickinson makes clear her belief that “The Brain-is wider than the Sky” and “deeper than the sea”. However, one line that was brought to my attention was “The one the other will contain/With ease-and You-beside-” Here, “The one” means the sky, “the other” the brain, for the brain can easily convey the image of the sky while
“The brain is just the weight of God-”. It is interesting that she would choose to compare God and the brain with ‘weight’, since weight not only has the obvious meaning, ‘the amount or quantity of heaviness or mass; amount a thing weighs’, but with it a more idiomatic definition as well, ‘to have importance or significance; influence’. With these two definitions the ambiguous tone Dickinson employs when comparing God and the brain might be explained. In the first line she says that the brain is the exact weight of God but proceeds to say, “they will differ”, and then adds to the confusion by the line “-if they do-”. In the final line she compare the brain to the syllable and God to sound, which are incomparable as sponges are to buckets. The way I see the stanza is this. Syllable is a part of sound, and cannot exist without it. Therefore, it is logical to say that the amount or quantity of God is far more substantial that that of the human