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Box

The poem’s third stanza represents the procession, which is the part of the funeral when the mourners carry the coffin out of the parlor and into the burial ground. However, instead of referring to the coffin directly, the speaker references “a Box” (lines 9–10):

     And then I heard them lift a Box
     And creak across my Soul.

Dickinson’s use of the word “Box” here is significant. On the one hand, it is clearly meant to represent the traditional container used for the burial of a corpse: that is, a coffin. Yet the box is also more than a coffin. Because the funeral in the poem is a conceit and hence figurative rather than literal, the box must be read as a symbolic container. Such a symbolic box may not carry a corpse at all. It could contain the metaphorical “corpse” of a lost relationship, a missed opportunity, or even an antiquated belief. The point is, we don’t know what’s in this “Box.” And in this regard, the box of the poem is like the modern concept of a “black box,” which refers to an object or system whose internal mechanisms remain unknown. Dickinson’s “Box” may therefore be read as a general symbol for the mysterious nature of loss.

“Plank in Reason”

The speaker opens the final stanza by stating, “And then a Plank in Reason, broke” (line 17). This moment marks the speaker’s transition into a state of increasing disorientation. The speaker likens this state to the experience of plunging headlong through a cosmic void—a plunge that begins when a “Plank in Reason” breaks. Here, “Reason” is a synonym for the concept of rationality. By describing “Reason” as being made of planks, the speaker implicitly likens rationality to a wooden floor. Just as a floor provides a ground to stand on and move about, rationality is a sort of metaphorical ground. Such a metaphorical ground provides a necessary foundation for thinking. In order to think clearly and carefully, we need some kind of logical substructure to support us. But if that substructure collapses, then so does our capacity to proceed with logic and rationality. With all this in mind, the “Plank in Reason” symbolizes the foundations for rational thought. However, the fact that this plank broke suggests that the foundation for rational thought may be less secure than commonly supposed. At any moment it might collapse beneath us, plunging us into a disorienting abyss of madness.

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