18 pages • 36 minutes read
What mystery pervades a well!
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Themes
Human Arrogance
Dickinson’s poem deals with the arrogance that people often feel in the face of nature as a result of not understanding it very well. This idea is particularly overt in the third stanza:
The grass does not appear afraid,
I often wonder he
Can stand so close and look so bold
At what is awe to me (Lines 9-12).
The grass (here personified as male) feels no fear or awe in the face of fathomless power. Its unearned confidence parallels that of the male naturalists studying nature with a lack of respect to the great feminine mystery behind it. The speaker’s tone in this stanza is ambivalent—vaguely envious of the grass’s ability to withstand “what is awe to me” while at the same time aware that the sublimity the speaker is experiencing is a sign of greater wisdom and understanding.
The metaphor continues into the fourth stanza, observing the wild sedge grass at the seaside: “Where he is floorless / And does no timidity betray” (Lines 19-20). The relationship here is the same as that between the grass and the well, with one key difference: The sedge grows on unstable ground, in danger of collapsing into the sea at any moment—and yet he shows no fear. This isn’t an act of courage, but rather of ignorance; he does not understand the danger he’s in.
This arrogance of humans who wield power over nature indiscriminately causes irreparable damage to us as a species and to the world around us. This is as problematic today as it was in Dickinson’s time, making this a particularly timely poem. Only by embracing the idea that knowing nature means understanding and respecting the hidden depths beneath its surface can we form any sort of meaningful bond with it. Otherwise, we struggle in ignorance: “That those who know her, know her less / The nearer her they get” (Lines 23-24).
Domesticated versus Wild Nature
“What mystery pervades a well” compares nature as a wild, unchained force to nature as a human construction. The first half of the poem considers a well and the grass growing beside it—aspects of nature that bear the heavy mark of a human hand. The well is created intentionally to domesticate and trap a part of the natural world that people can use for their own gain; although it is not malicious, it is a one-sided relationship. The grass is more docile than its wilder cousin, the sedge. It borders the well, respecting man-made boundaries, and has likely been planted for decorative purposes. This scene shows an artificial version of the natural world, designed to create a safe and accessible way to tap into its resources.
As the poem shifts setting, the grass and manmade well disappear and the reader is instead brought to a wild seaside and the untamed sedge growing beside it: “Related somehow they may be” (Line 13) and yet a world apart. Here we see nature on a grand, untamable scale. While the water of the opening scene was a “neighbor” (Line 3), this water is “a stranger yet” (Line 17): Unlike the well, the sea is dangerous and demanding; its water is a resource humans cannot contain or domesticate. To gain something tangibly beneficial from it, such as nourishment, it must be treated with a greater reverence and respect. We must be more honest with ourselves about our place in the natural world.
Masculine versus Feminine
The intentional use of masculine and feminine pronouns in “What mystery pervades a well,” making the poem a commentary on gendered approaches to the scientific study of nature.
The poem introduces four figures: the well, the grass, the sedge, and nature. The first three are personified as male, while nature is characterized as female. This creates a sense that while masculinity may dominate the material world, it is a female mother-type entity of polarity that holds it all together.
The distinguishing characteristic of the grass is that it “does not appear afraid” (Line 9) despite its proximity to a source of awe. Similarly, the sedge grass “does no timidity betray” (Line 16) although it is in real peril and could collapse at any moment. The appearance of emotional stoicism in the face of awe or danger was a cultural expectation for men in Dickinson’s time. Whether this is arrogance, artifice, or a combination of the two is left for the reader to decide.
In the final stanza, the speaker turns their attention to nature, a being that is fathomless and contains more mystery than human beings can ever understand. Though the speaker’s gender is not specified, the expectation is for readers to read the “I” as the poet. Although the poem’s male figures display no fear, it is its female ones that hold all the power: Nature encompasses the grasses and could wipe them out at any moment, just as the poet wields the pen that describes (or could leave out) the scene.
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By Emily Dickinson
