“What mystery pervades a well” is a 19th-century poem by the American writer Emily Dickinson. Though its exact year of composition is unknown, it was originally published posthumously in a larger collection of Dickinson’s work in 1896 and is generally classified as poem number 1400 out of her close to 1800 poems. “What mystery pervades a well” uses simple language and a standardized rhyme scheme and meter to explore themes of the natural world and humanity’s relationship with it.

Poet Biography

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a prolific American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts. Though she has posthumously become one of the most beloved poets in the American literary canon, only 10 of her poems, out of a body of work of almost 1800, were published during her lifetime. Four years after her death, her first volume of poetry was published to critical acclaim.

Dickinson was born to a prominent family in Amherst; her father was an up-and-coming lawyer who later became involved in politics. Dickinson and her siblings attended Amherst Academy, where she flourished in her studies. Here she developed a critical eye for the contemporary sciences, which is often reflected in her poetry. In particular, she became enamored with botany and was a devoted gardener all her life. For a brief period she also studied at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.

Though Dickinson never married, she had several deep friendships. We know about her close circle from her letters; she was a prolific letter-writer, and many of her letters have survived. Benjamin Franklin Newton, a family friend who worked with Dickinson’s father, became a formative influence who introduced her to the writings of William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was also influenced by the work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Charlotte Brontë, and William Shakespeare.

Dickinson’s strongest relationship, however, was with her sister-in-law Susan Dickinson (nee Gilbert). Susan’s marriage to Dickinson’s brother Austin was not a happy one. Dickinson wrote Susan more than 300 letters over the course of their friendship; one letter claims that Susan “told me of more knowledge than any one living” (Dickinson, Emily. “Emily Dickinson’s Correspondences.” Emily Dickinson Digital Archive). The letters’ consistent intimacy has fueled persistent speculation that Dickinson and Gilbert were romantically involved: Excerpts like “the expectation once more to see your face again, makes me feel hot and feverish, and my heart beats so fast [...] my darling, so near I seem to you, that I disdain this pen” (Dickinson, Emily. “Emily Dickinson’s Correspondences.” Emily Dickinson Digital Archive) seem to confirm this idea, as does Dickinson’s lack of known heterosexual romantic relationships.

As her mother’s health declined, Dickinson ran the house, and left it less and less often. During this time, she produced the majority of her work, assembling her poems in small collections that today we would call chapbooks or pamphlets. Although she attempted to publish some of this work, it was largely considered to be unpolished and inexperienced; the work that did make it into print was heavily edited, with Dickinson’s trademark idiosyncratic use of punctuation standardized.

Dickinson died in 1886 from an unspecified illness believed to be the result of high blood pressure. The funeral preparations were largely left to Susan. After her death, Dickinson’s younger sister Lavinia discovered the poetry chapbooks and saw to their publication. The first volume of heavily edited poems was published in 1890; Dickinson’s poems then appeared in their original form in 1955.

Today, Dickinson is part of the English literary canon. Her poems are taught in the United States from middle school to university level, and her original family homestead has become a museum. In 2019, her life and romance with Susan was dramatized in the TV series “Dickinson,” starring Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Hunt.

Poem Text

What mystery pervades a well!

That water lives so far —

A neighbor from another world

Residing in a jar

Whose limit none have ever seen,

But just his lid of glass —

Like looking every time you please

In an abyss's face!

The grass does not appear afraid,

I often wonder he

Can stand so close and look so bold

At what is awe to me.

Related somehow they may be,

The sedge stands next the sea —

Where he is floorless

And does no timidity betray

But nature is a stranger yet;

The ones that cite her most

Have never passed her haunted house,

Nor simplified her ghost.

To pity those that know her not

Is helped by the regret

That those who know her, know her less

The nearer her they get.

Dickinson, Emily. “What mystery pervades a well.” 1896. Project Gutenberg.

Summary

The speaker ponders the unknown inside a well. The water is so far down that it may as well be in another world, although it’s contained in a small, enclosed space. The speaker doesn’t know how far down the water goes, because no one has ever seen the bottom beneath the glass-like surface. For the speaker, looking at the water is like looking at a great, powerful emptiness. However, the grass nearby doesn’t seem to mind being near such an intimidating force. The speaker wonders how the grass can be so casual about something so awe-inspiring.

The speaker then compares the relationship between the grass and the well to that of the hardy, wild sedge grasses along the seaside: The sedge grows precariously on unstable land, but it is not frightened. However, though the speaker feels they know the water and the grasses, nature as a whole is still a stranger to them. People who reference nature most often are those who have never plumbed its mysteries. The speaker finds comfort in the fact that to get closer to nature is to realize how little of it you truly understand.