What Soft — Cherubic Creatures

The 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson is the author of “What Soft—Cherubic Creatures.” A central figure in American literature, Dickinson wrote around 1,800 poems but, adverse to publicity, only published around 10 poems during her life. The publication of the remainder of her poems occurred after she died, and “What Soft—Cherubic Creatures” is one of her many posthumously published poems. Like most of her poems, it was untitled and not dated. Due to the lack of titles, Dickinson scholars use numbers and the poem’s first line to identify them. One authoritative Dickinson editor, Thomas Johnson, assigned it number 401. Another authoritative Dickinson editor, Ralph W. Franklin, assigned it number 675. Scholars believe she wrote the poem around 1862. The poem is a lyric and, because it teaches a lesson about upper-class women and their lack of integrity, it qualifies as a parable. Dickinson’s sharp humor, playful syntax, and ideas about humanity and religion shape the poem. Through her speaker, Dickinson challenges norms about Christianity and privileged women. "What Soft—Cherubic Creatures" is one of Dickinson’s more straightforward poems, but it’s not one of her most famous or anthologized poems, which include works like “Because I could not stop for Death” (ca 1863) or “My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun” (ca 1863).

Poet Biography

Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She had an older brother, William Austin, and a younger sister, Lavinia ("Vinnie"). Her grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, was a prominent lawyer and politician who helped found Amherst Academy and Amherst College. Samuel’s son and Dickinson’s father, Edward, was the treasurer of Amherst College from 1835-1837. Edward was also a successful lawyer and politician. Dickinson’s mother, Emily Norcross, was a homemaker who came from a thriving family of farmers.

Dickinson attended two prestigious schools, Amherst Academy and the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. As an adolescent, Dickinson maintained an active social life. She liked parties, sleigh rides, exploring nature, and entertained a few romantic interests. In Martha Ackmann’s biography about Dickinson, These Fevered Days, Ackmann quotes a letter from Dickinson playfully appraising her appearance. Writing to a friend, Dickinson says, “I am growing handsome very fast indeed [and] expect I shall be the Belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year” (Ackmann, Martha. These Fevered Days. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020).

After returning from the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, Dickinson became less social. She lived with her parents and wasn’t enthusiastic about meeting people face to face. Dickinson’s ostensible isolation has produced a variety of rumors and portrayals. Ackmann contests the depiction of Dickinson as an “eccentric spinster who locked herself away from the world” (Ackmann, Martha. These Fevered Days. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020). Through letters, Dickinson stayed closely connected with the world. She had a robust correspondence with Josiah Holland and Samuel Bowles. They were editors of The Springfield Republican, the largest newspaper in New England at the time. She also exchanged many letters with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who published in The Atlantic Monthly, and, during the Civil War, he led a regiment of Black Union soldiers freed from slavery (the 1st South Carolina Volunteers). Dickinson also shared a deep connection with her sister-in-law (William Austin’s wife) Susan Gilbert, who was most familiar with Dickinson’s poetry.

Dickinson never married and, because of her family’s financial situation, she never had to work. Besides writing letters, she wrote around 1,800 poems. She wrote them on envelopes, bills, and scraps of paper. The poems are hard to read and possess neither titles nor dates. She sent some of them to Higginson, who was lukewarm about the style and syntax. To organize them, Dickinson copied several of her poems into homemade books. After Dickinson died in 1886, Lavinia discovered a locked box of Dickinson’s work. Susan declined to help Lavinia publish the poems. Mabel Loomis Todd—a writer, artist, and scholar who had an extended affair with Austin—eventually transcribed and edited over 600 Dickinson poems.

Like many other editors, Todd tried to make Dickinson’s poems more accessible. She replaced Dickinson’s jarring dashes with commas and standardized her capitalization. A thorough and accurate publication of Dickinson's work would have to wait until 1955. Thomas Johnson edited this compendium. He numbered Dickinson’s poems based on the order in which he believed she wrote them. He assigned the poem “What Soft—Cherubic Creatures” number 401. Decades later, Ralph W. Franklin published what some believe to be the most authoritative version of Dickinson’s poems. He assigned “What Soft—Cherubic Creatures” number 675.

Poem Text

Dickinson, Emily. “What Soft—Cherubic Creatures.” 1862. American Poems.

Summary

The speaker starts the poem with an image of “Soft—Cherubic Creatures—” (Line 1). These delicate angels are the “Gentlewomen” (Line 2), or upper-class women. The gentlewomen are so delicate that a person “would as soon assault a Plush— / Or violate a Star” (Lines 3-4) than hurt them. In other words, the gentlewomen occupy such a high place in the hierarchy that even luxurious fabrics and celestial bodies are beneath them.

The speaker then directly criticizes the gentlewomen’s ways when they point out their “Dimity Convictions” (Line 5), or thin beliefs. They cultivate a “refined” (Line 6) nature, so they’re terrified of “freckled Human Nature” (Line 7), or the imperfect real world.

The speaker argues that the gentlewomen's extraordinary daintiness has put them at odds with their “Deity” (Line 8). They’re “ashamed” (Line 8) of their God, who's “common” (Line 9). The inclusion of “fisherman’s” (Line 10) is an allusion to Jesus Christ because his first disciples were fishermen. Speaking directly to the gentlewomen, the speaker says that Christ is “ashamed of Thee” (Line 12) for acting superior.