{"id":8702,"date":"2026-05-15T07:34:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=8702"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:35:20","slug":"emily-dickinson-im-ceded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/15\/emily-dickinson-im-ceded\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Dickinson – I’m ceded"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m ceded\u2013I\u2019ve stopped being Theirs
\nby Emily Dickinson<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m ceded\u2013I\u2019ve stopped being Theirs\u2013
\nThe name They dropped upon my face
\nWith water, in the country church
\nIs finished using, now,
\nAnd They can put it with my Dolls,
\nMy childhood, and the string of spools,
\nI\u2019ve finished threading\u2013too\u2013<\/p>\n

Baptized, before, without the choice,
\nBut this time, consciously, of Grace\u2013
\nUnto supremest name\u2013
\nCalled to my full\u2013The Crescent dropped\u2013
\nExistence\u2019s whole Arc, filled up,
\nWith one small Diadem.<\/p>\n

My second Rank\u2013too small the first\u2013
\nCrowned\u2013Crowing\u2013on my Father\u2019s breast\u2013
\nA half unconscious Queen\u2013
\nBut this time\u2013Adequate\u2013Erect,
\nWith Will to choose, or to reject,
\nAnd I choose\u2013just a Crown\u2013<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women<\/a>, Edited by Jane Hirshfield<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by live-showtime<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

I believe this poem belongs among the great enlightenment poems. At the same time its words pointedly cut at religious convention.<\/p>\n

Something has happened. Something that makes Emily Dickinson erupt from the opening lines, fiercely asserting that she is \u201cceded,\u201d that she has \u201cstopped being Theirs.\u201d This is a proclamation of supreme yielding or dying to oneself that is also her escape into freedom.<\/p>\n

She no longer has use for \u201cThe name They dropped upon my face\u201d when she was baptized. That name is now something that she has set aside with other childish things. Not just set aside, it has fallen away. Her social identity, the person \u201cThey\u201d call Emily has ceased to exist. She has discovered herself to be something larger, more essential, more true. She has exploded into an identity so immense and all-encompassing that it is the \u201csupremest name\u201d \u2014 the Ultimate, the Absolute. She has been \u201cCalled to my full,\u201d a state of awareness in which \u201cExistence\u2019s whole Arc\u201d is \u201cfilled up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But also notice the iconoclastic way she refers to baptism. The first baptism was a baptism given to her \u201cwithout the choice\u201d and imposes upon her a name that is \u201ctoo small,\u201d that must be grown out of and abandoned. She implies that that first baptism initiated her into the social world, not the spiritual one. That name that \u201cThey dropped upon my face\u201d had trapped her, making her \u201cTheirs,\u201d somehow controlled and contained by societal conventions represented by the \u201ccountry church.\u201d She contrasts this with being \u201cCrowned,\u201d a second baptism, but one received inwardly, \u201cconsciously, of Grace.\u201d She implies that this second baptism is the real anointing that gives true freedom, not the baptism she received as a child. For much of the Christian world that is a dangerous assertion even today, a century and a half later. Her words challenge fellow Christians to seek the inner anointing, of which the outer baptism is a reflection.<\/p>\n

The last line particularly grabs my attention, \u201cAnd I choose\u2013just a Crown\u2013\u201d Rather than choosing (or rejecting) a new name or renewed social ego, she possesses the clarity and \u201cWill\u201d to choose instead to reside in the immensity of this \u201csupremest name.\u201d What else needs to be said?<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Emily Dickinson<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThis Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nWomen in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Emily<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nEmily Dickinson<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US (1830 \u2013 1886) Timeline<\/a>
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\nChristian<\/a> : Protestant<\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 to a prominent family in Amherst, Massachusetts. Few of her poems were published during her lifetime, the bulk of her poetry having been discovered after her death in the 1880s. Despite this anonymity during her lifetime, Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the greatest of American poets. Her unusual use of rhyme, meter, and grammar anticipates modernist trends in 20th century poetry.<\/p>\n

She attended Amherst Academy and a year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.<\/p>\n

While at the seminary, Dickinson famously refused to participate in the show of evangelical conversion sweeping through her community at the time. Much of her poetry, however, meditates on heaven and the inner life, often contrasting the private moment against public religious convention. She was clearly a critic of the common practice of religion, leading many to casually label her as an atheist, yet there is no denying that she experienced a rich inner life that she understood in religious terms. While unconventional by the religious standards of her day, the argument can be made that she was a deep mystic. If one reads her poetry side-by-side with the poet-saints of India, for example, the parallels in metaphoric language and insight become obvious.<\/p>\n

Following her return from Mount Holyoke, Emily Dickinson almost never left Amherst again, rarely even leaving the grounds of her family home. Later in life she took to dressing entirely in white.<\/p>\n

Much is made of Dickinson\u2019s reclusive life, the fact that she never married, and the focus on death in much of her poetry, leading to descriptions of her as a morbid, sexually repressed recluse. One can see her in this way; or, recognizing the depth of her mysticism, we can imagine that she cultivated a self-defined monastic life of contemplation and poetry.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Emily Dickinson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m ceded\u2013I\u2019ve stopped being Theirs by Emily Dickinson I\u2019m ceded\u2013I\u2019ve stopped being Theirs\u2013 The name They dropped upon my face With water, in the country church Is finished using, now, And They can put it with my Dolls, My childhood, and the string of spools, I\u2019ve finished threading\u2013too\u2013 Baptized, before, without the choice, But this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2629,749,196,1339,519,2338,734],"class_list":["post-8702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-american-spiritual-poetry","tag-baptism","tag-emily-dickinson","tag-grace","tag-identity","tag-name","tag-womens-spiritual-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8702"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8705,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8702\/revisions\/8705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}