To Hang Our Head Ostensibly
poem 105
To Hang Our Head Ostensibly - meaning Summary
False Outward Humility
The poem observes people who adopt an outward posture of humility or shame that does not match their inner convictions. Dickinson treats this dissonance with sharp irony, suggesting the public pose is a flimsy, insubstantial artifice — like cobwebs on gauze — that invites a sly presumption about character. The voice exposes performative behavior and the gap between appearance and the "immortal mind."
Read Complete AnalysesTo hang our head ostensibly And subsequent, to find That such was not the posture Of our immortal mind Affords the sly presumption That in so dense a fuzz You too take Cobweb attitudes Upon a plane of Gauze!
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