"Whether my bark went down at sea" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

Whether my bark went down at sea --[1] Whether she met with gales --[2] Whether to isles enchanted[3] She bent her docile sails --[4] By what mystic mooring[5] She is held today --[6] This is the errand of the eye[7] Out upon the Bay.[8]
Poem 52 [F33] "Whether my bark went down at sea" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

If this poem continues the image of the soul as a boat, sailing the sea of life, which Emily had used in poems 4 and 30, she is presumably describing the day after death. Did the bark which was the soul vanish into nothingness or has it arrived in heaven? If heaven, how exactly is the soul held safe in its mooring by God? These are the questions it eagerly seeks to answer. Alternatively Emily may be eager to know how her relationship with Sue stands, for in June 1852 she wrote to her saying,' I shall only hope, my Susie, and that tremblingly, for hav'nt barques the fullest, stranded upon the shore (L93)?' The poem could even be spoken by a merchant, standing on the quayside and wondering about the fate of his vessel, or by an artist wondering about the reception his work will receive. The same metaphor appears again in poem 1234.
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