This World is not Conclusion

Dickinson often used poetry to consider such Christian metaphysical topics as death, God, resurrection, the natural world, the eternal afterlife, and the world to come. Poems like “The Only News I know” depict Dickinson’s constant meditations on the subject of eternity. Like “This World is Not Conclusion,” the poem “I never saw a Moor” highlights her certainty that God and Heaven exist, despite her never having seen them personally. In most of her poems, Dickinson displays a strong, if unorthodox, belief in the existence of a life after death.

However, in many other poems, Dickinson criticizes blind, overzealous faith. In “‘Faith’ is a fine invention,” Dickinson facetiously encourages the use of a microscope “in an Emergency” (Line 4) rather than relying on faith alone. While she believes religious faith has its place, she also believes that faith should not inhibit technological progress and contradict scientific understanding. “This World is not Conclusion” similarly condemns the kind of blind, unthinking faith that accepts the existence of eternity without question.

Perhaps the poem that best represents Dickinson’s complicated perspective on faith and science is “The Skies can’t keep their secret.” In it, Dickinson discusses the mysteries of God, arguing that a close and active observation of the natural world is the only way one to understand spiritual mysteries. However, Dickinson has no wish to entirely uncover God’s secrets to preserve the “sorcery” (Line 12) or mysterious magic of the world. Science and the natural world’s operations are important to learn about, but the purpose of God and eternity lies in the act of speculating about them: Spiritual fulfillment comes not from answers but from questions.