"These held their Wick above the West " By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

These held their Wick above the West [1] Till when the Red declined [2] Or how the Amber aided it [3] Defied to be defined [4] Then waned without disparagement[5] In a dissembling Hue[6] That would not let the Eye decide[7] Did it abide or no [8]
Poem 1390 [F1416] "These held their Wick above the West" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

Emily sent the second stanza of this poem (beginning with the variant 'to wane') in a letter (L486) of January 1877 to Thomas Higginson. As the stanza did not conclude with a full stop, but had the prose addition 'is sunset's perhaps only,' it clearly refers to the sunset. Samuel Bowles after a long illness died on 16 January 1878, and some time soon after that Emily sent the whole of poem 1390 to Mrs Holland, prefaced with the words 'We hope that you are happy so far as Peace is possible, to Mortal and immortal Life. . ..But I intrude on Sunset, and Father and Mr Bowles (L5440).' So, when embedded in this letter, the poem refers to her father and Samuel Bowles as well as the sunset. With all three of them it is impossible to describe exactly the process of their setting.
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