Emily Dickinson Ownership

The End of Spiritual Ownership

The feeling of being owned by someone of something is ever present in our daily lives, whether it is being “owned” by our parents, or some organization or higher power. In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “I’m ceded -- I’ve stopped being Theirs” she captures this feeling of being owned, as represented in the title by the words, “I’ve stopped being theirs”. Dickinson in thai poem highlighted her relationship with religion and how she feels it had been forced upon her as a child and that she now is not afraid to make her own decisions. Through this the reader could not help but feel as if they are in the same circumstance of finding themselves and gaining power over their own lives.
In the first half of “I’m ceded --

Dickinson continues to use imagery in symbolism in the third stanza in the lines, “Crowned -- Crowing -- on my Father’s breast -- / A half unconsious Queen -- / But this time -- Adequate -- Erect, / With Will to choose, or to reject, and I choose, just a Crown --” (15 - 20). The symbolism she uses in these lines is the comparasion of her to a queen and her being crowned as her being forced to be baptised. Then when she says a half unconscious queen in the next line, she is still talking about being forced to be baptised because she was so young she didn’t have a choice and so she couldn’t make decisions for herself. After she says the line, “A half unconscious Queen --” (16) she then talks about her choosing, her crowning herself, her making her own decisions as a fully realized queen. In the second stanza, Dickinson uses metaphors to compare her new realization and power over herself by comparing her new situation to being “Called to my Full -- The Crescent dropped -- / Existence’s whole Arc, filled up,” (11, 12) These lines show her being called to her potential and gaining that power which can also be seen with her mentioning Crescent which is metoymy to the crown she later mentions. She also writes the line, “Unto supremest name --”