Emily Dickinson

Exclusion (the Soul Selects Her Own Society)

Exclusion (the Soul Selects Her Own Society) - meaning Summary

Deliberate Inward Exclusion

The poem presents a speaker who portrays the soul as an autonomous chooser that selects its own companions and then decisively excludes all others. Social rank, public display, and powerful suitors are irrelevant to this inward authority. The chosen intimacy is exclusive and permanent, and the soul seals off further access with an image of hard, unyielding closure. Themes include personal sovereignty, the limits of social obligation, and the deliberate refusal of outside influence in favor of a single, self-determined relationship or state of being.

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The soul selects her own society, Then shuts the door; On her divine majority Obtrude no more. Unmoved, she notes the chariot’s pausing At her low gate; Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling Upon her mat. I’ve known her from an ample nation Choose one Then close the valves of her attention Like stone.

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