"The Treason of an accent" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis] [Version I]

The Treason of an accent [1] Might Ecstasy transfer [2] Of her effacing Fathom [3] Is no Recoverer [4]
[Version II]

The Treason of an Accent [1] Might vilify the Joy [2] To breathe corrode the rapture [3] Of Sanctity to be [4]
Poem 1358 [F1388] "The Treason of an accent" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

Version I of this poem, the only version printed by Franklin, is in a letter (L450) of February 1876 to Thomas Higginson. It comes immediately after the opening sentence, which reads, 'There is so much that is tenderly profane in even the sacredest Human Life that perhaps it is instinct and not design, that dissuades us from it.' Emily may have in mind her developing love for her father's married friend, Judge Lord, for in a letter (L477) to Higginson later in the year she says, 'Judge Lord was with us a few days since and told me the Joy we most revere we profane in taking.' Even the most upright person can feel a tenderness or love for the 'profane' (= another person, who is legally outside his orbit), and it is only 'instinct' which stops him from declaring it. For example, says Emily in the poem, if I spoke out and said that I loved Judge Lord, this treason, as he is married, 'might Ecstasy transfer,' but the declaration of such a deep love, obliterating what is lawfully there, could never be called back. Similarly in version II, printed by Johnson, to speak her love would 'vilify the Joy [of purity],' and to breathe 'I love you' would 'corrode the rapture/ of Sanctity to be.'
Top