"I'm ceded - I've stopped being Their's -"

I'm ceded - I've stopped being Their's -
The name They dropped upon my face
With water, in the country church
Is finished using, now,
And They can put it with my Dolls,
My childhood, and the string of spools,
I've finished threading - too -

Baptized, before, without the choice,
But this time, consciously, Of Grace -
Unto supremest name -
Called to my Full - The Crescent dropped -
Existence's whole Arc, filled up,
With one - small Diadem -

My second Rank - too small the first -
Crowned - Crowing - on my Father's breast -
A half unconscious Queen -
But this time - Adequate - Erect,
With Will to choose,
Or to reject,
And I choose, just a Crown -

Fr 353

            This Dickinson poem focuses on the relationship of personal choice and identity through a feminist lens. Aside from the occasional slant rhyme, the poem does not have a set form or rhyme scheme. However, there is repetition in the rhythm of the three stanzas that holds the poem together within the form. In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker reveals that she is undergoing a momentous change in her life. This change has released her from “being Their’s”. It is never explicitly stated in the poem who “they” are, but this fact seems altogether irrelevant to the overall point of the poem. In my reading, I took “they” to mean the speakers family and church, and that she had “ceded” being theirs  due to her marriage. This would also explain why she is finished using her name, as she would take on the new name of her husband. 

            The key difference between her old name and identity and her new one, is the fact that in the latter she is the one that made the choice. She describes her first name as one “dropped upon her face” with water, referencing her baptism as a baby. This inclusion of baptism and church also groups religion with her former identity, implying that like her name, religion was forced upon her. The word choice and diction of the second stanza is quite different than that of the first. Whereas the language of the first stanza is simple, much like the childhood toys the speaker leaves behind, the second stanza incorporates divine language such as ‘grace’, ‘Supremest’, ‘Existence’s ark’, ‘cresent’, and ‘diadem’. This change in language is symbolic of the metamorphosis that the speaker experiences as she comes into the identity that she chose for herself.  Where the speaker was baptized “without a choice”, she is now baptized “consciously”.  She becomes self-actualized, and this fulfills her life in a way that was not possible before she exercised her power to choose her life for herself. This change is described as “Existence’s whole Arc, filled up”.

            The poem closes by reiterating the importance of choice and autonomy. The speaker incorporates more imagery of her first baptism as a baby crying on her father’s chest. In contrast, she describes herself in the present as “adequate” and “erect” as she chooses her crown. It is this will to choose that makes the difference. I read this poem as the speaker choosing her new identity as a bride and wife. In this way, the seemingly “sexist” view of marriage that one would expect to see portrayed in a feminist poem is turned on its head. She is not burdened or held back by marriage, instead it is a divine role and one that she chooses for herself. The feminist aspect of this poem is the importance of autonomy and personal choice, and a woman choosing to be married is just as much of a feminist action as a woman choosing not to be married.  While this is my interpretation, it is important to note that the ‘role’ that the speaker chooses is not specified explicitly in the poem. Like many Dickinson poems, “I’ve ceded – I’ve stopped being Their’s” leaves enough room for the reader to connect with it and interpret it in a personal way.