Some keep the Sabbath going to Church --

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –

I keep it, staying at Home –

With a Bobolink for a Chorister –

And an Orchard, for a Dome –

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –

I just wear my Wings –

And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,

Our little Sexton –  sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –

And the sermon is never long,

So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –

I'm going, all along.

F (236)

While many consider church as going to a communal place to worship, with a sermon and Clergyman, the speaker finds her place of worship, as well as her heaven, in nature. The speaker talks of defining her sabbath as different than others’, for while they spend time in church, she spends time in nature, worshipping it. She goes so far to call it her “heaven,” saying that “instead of going to Heaven - at last | [she] is going, all along.” She has found her heaven and has no need for the conventional church.


Dickinson frequently uses the ballad meter when writing poems, but “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church -” defies that form as the speaker defies the conventional Sabbath. Ballad meter usually alternates between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, creating a song-like sound for the poem. Many hymns and spiritual songs hold to this form, and Emily Dickinson writes in it often. However, this poem plays with the form, adding beats and switching the stress of syllables sometimes midline. The meter of the poem varies from line to line; no two lines in one stanza consist of the same number of beats, which is abnormal and breaks conventional forms. Her unconventional form relates to the speaker’s unconventional worship.

Despite the differences in meter, “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,” does adhere to the typical rhyme scheme of ballad poems. This shows that the form of worship between churchgoers and the speaker is not that different. Though there may be differences in where they worship and what they worship, they are both worshiping in a similar way. The speaker’s version of sabbath still has a “dome” in the form of an “orchard” (as seen in the picture above) and a “Bobolink” as a “Chorister,” showing the similarities between the two forms of church. Dickinson accentuates the similarities by keeping the typical rhyme scheme of the form she has mostly altered.

Dickinson also uses diction tied to a classical church service, such as “Bells,” “Clergyman,” “Sexton,” “Chorister,” “Dome,” and “Sermon.” She does so to again tie the speaker’s form of worship to the traditional form of worship, showing that they are not as different as they seem. The “Chorister” and “Bells” are replaced with song-birds; the structure of the church, consisting of a “Dome,” is replaced with an “Orchard,” showing the similarities. Though she accentuates the similarities, the speaker also shows her preferred version. Nature is her place of worship, being freed from the clergical, traditional expectations, and though she justifies their resemblance, she doesn’t hide that they are in fact different and she prefers the nontraditional.


Dickinson purposefully creates irony in her unconventional poem about worship. For example, sexton is defined as a “church officer whose duty is to ring church bells and dig graves for the dead” according to the Emily Dickinson Lexicon. Dickinson uses it figuratively here as a type of bird:

       And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,

       Our little Sexton – sings.

Rather than the Sexton ringing the bells for church (and often for the announcement of death), he is singing life into her Sabbath. This is ironic because what is represented in the church as signaling death, signals life for her ‘church.’ She redefines what the Sexton’s job is to represent a singing bird, similar to the Bobolink being the “choir.” Birds often represent freedom when mentioned in poetry, so Dickinson’s use shows the speaker’s freedom in her form of worship.


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