Emily Dickinson's Poem - the Single Hound

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Emily Dickinson's Poem: The Single Hound

Name of a character: Satan

Name of a setting: Eden

Name of a symbol: Sin

According to Dickinson ‘the single hound’ will convince all men to believe in God. The single hound in this context is a metaphor of a single disturbance or bedevil as a result of people’s imagination. The single hound can also be interpreted to mean the self-consciousness, that entity, phenomenon or a creature (can as well be called a dog) that was there in the ancient homestead (Eden).

The distinguished principle (sin) as perpetrated by the brigadier (Satan) has always been there to mislead men just like David and Judas were misled. Following this, and out of self-imposed fear, the only way out is for men to believe in God. It is not adequate to conclude that men have self-consciousness that defines what is human; however, according to Dickinson, men will always be haunted by their consciousness and will be convinced to believe in God as an unavoidable reminder of how lonely or singular men are.

Dickinson sees the Bible (Holy Scriptures) as witticism of “Holy Spectres”, consequently, Dickinson doubts religious teachings or at least does not concur with the faded old men who wrote it trying to be in control of the ‘antique Volume’s’ interpretation. Dickinson suggests that the sacred text (scriptures) could be empty in its content, ghost, spectre of people’s desire (Dickinson 3). Consequently, since people are condemned to an everlasting fear of loneliness as a result of their self-consciousness, their imagination of a single hound will convince them to believe in God.