Glee — The great storm is over —
Four — have recovered the Land —
Forty — gone down together —
Into the boiling Sand —
Ring — for the Scant Salvation —
Toll — for the bonnie Souls —
Neighbor — and friend — and Bridegroom —
Spinning upon the Shoals —
How they will tell the Story —
When Winter shake the Door —
Till the Children urge —
But the Forty —
Did they — come back no more?
Then a softness — suffuse the Story —
And a silence — the Teller’s eye —
And the Children — no further question —
And only the Sea — reply —
I think that this poem not only tells the tale of a shipwreck, very common in her time, but of her life. While reading this poem you can feel the underlining sarcasm, and cynism. Dickinson is trying to tell of a lost love and her bitterness towards live afterwards. “Ring for the Scant Salvation” I think refers to her surviving after becoming heart-broken and yet becoming so downtrodden that it’s almost as though nothing of her survived…scant.