Some keep the Sabbath going to Church

Emily, in this poem, is once again displaying her desire to be unorthodox and her success in doing so. While many people choose to celebrate the Sabbath in a church, she sees this as a waste of time and not truly appreciating the Sabbath at all. The Sabbath began as a Pagan holiday celebrating the turn of the seasons, regardless of the Christian connotation it now has. So, in staying true to the original essence of the Sabbath, Emily enjoys nature and experiences all it has to offer. Contrary to this, of course, is staying cooped up inside a stuffy building, listening to someone talk about things you’ll hear a million times over before you die. Moreover, instead of listening to someone worship God for her, she will do it directly and have her own relationship, eliminating the clerical middleman. Emily, finally, concludes that she won’t stop her life to worship when she could be doing it equally well at home. Even if she doesn’t get to Heaven, she proclaims, at least she will have had a full life instead of life that’d been frittered away in a Church.

“Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church”

12/07/2005 T. P. Corrigan

Emily Dickinson’s poem “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church” is an expression of her rather unorthodox view of how a person should live his or her spiritual life. Most people celebrate the Sabbath by going to church; however, Emily Dickinson feels that time is better spent at home and especially with nature, a very prevalent theme in this poem.
She starts her poem making the simple statement that some people keep the Sabbath by going to church, but she stays at home. She makes comparisons between church and her home stating that she has birds for a choir and an orchard for a dome (dome meaning a church building). She states that some people dress up for church, but she just wears her wings. Wings are symbolic of what God gives her, and they relate to her expression of the glory found in nature. She says that instead of ringing bells for church, her Sexton, which she has mentioned as the bobolink, sings. In her last paragraph, Emily says that God, who of course is a noted Clergyman, preaches to her through life, a sermon that is never long. She says that instead interrupting her life to go to church, she is going home where she can live her life and get to heaven just as easily.
Emily uses a definite rhyme scheme of A, B, C, B, to D, E, F, E, to G, H, I, H in her three paragraph poem. She uses a vivid vocabulary in her use of sound and sight imagery. She also employs other poetry devices, such as alliteration in the title and the first line of the second and third paragraph, - “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,” and “Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice.”
The Sabbath and church are very important aspects of most people’s lives. Emily Dickinson expresses how she feels about truly appreciating the Sabbath, and establishes her own kind of relationship with God. She feels that one can get to heaven just as easily by staying at home and in nature, God’s creation.