Surrender

Summary


In "Surrender," Emily Dickinson gives voice to a woman who has already offered everything to her beloved and still hears his doubt. She pleads with him to believe her, insisting that even God would be content with a fraction of such love. Tender, urgent and quietly daring, this short poem asks what remains to give when the whole self is already his, and what a humble maiden may still hope for.

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DOUBT me, my dim companion!
Why, God would be content
With but a fraction of the love
Poured thee without a stint.
The whole of me, forever,
What more the woman can,—
Say quick, that I may dower thee
With last delight I own!

It cannot be my spirit,
For that was thine before;
I ceded all of dust I knew,—
What opulence the more
Had I, a humble maiden,
Whose farthest of degree
Was that she might,
Some distant heaven,
Dwell timidly with thee!


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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive nineteenth-century American poet whose compact, dash-filled verses were largely discovered after her death. This poem is one of her intimate love lyrics, written in the voice of a speaker who addresses her "dim companion" directly.