Summary of Ample Make this Bed by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is an American poet, and had spent her life in solitude. Her poems are the letters that she sent to her father and sister-in-law; the only people have any kind of communication with her. This small poem is one amongst one of the many letters that she had written. I am going to look upon the summary and critical analysis of the poem, “Ample make this bed”:

Ample make this bed.
Make this bed with awe;
In it wait till judgment break
Excellent and fair.

In these lines, the poet is asking to make the bed for the judgment day, with enough time and enough way. She is asking to make the bed in so much love and interest, as the judgment in the final day would be just excellent and fair. She is asking to prepare the bed for a special day and special reason, which she knows is going to be the best of all.

Be its mattress straight,
Be its pillow round;

Let no sunrise’ yellow noise
Interrupt this ground.

In these lines, she is giving further directions on how to make the bed, little places where she needs perfection. Such behaviour is seen when you are anticipating something special. She asks to keep the mattress straight and the pillow in proper shape. In the last lines, she expresses that she doesn’t want the sense of time surround her on this bed. She wants no light of the sun reach this bed on the judgment day, and keep her detached from the world.

In this poem, the bed is also the dual metaphor for a grave. If one observes the poem, it has a dual meaning. First, which the bed is being prepared for the purpose of making love and the poet is emancipating a sensual time with her companion, and wants everything to be perfect for the moment. She wants no disturbance and no sense of timing to interrupt her.

In the second meaning, the bed is symbolic to grave, where she is preparing her grave or her coffin with love and patience, where she is going to rest for the after her life. She wants it to be comfortable, and proper. She wants nothing from the outer world to interrupt her while she lies there.