WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Poetry Fix: Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

Today, Erika Kyba reads "Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers," by Emily Dickinson. In this poem, Dickinson plays with the image of a tomb acting as a lamp, and she meditates on legacy, death, and history.

Welcome to the Poetry Fix on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Erica Kaiba, bringing you your weekly fix of poetry from across time. Today we're reading Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers by Emily Dickinson. In this poem, as in many others, Dickinson delivers a series of images that have multiple levels of meaning. The first image in this poem is that of the Blessed Dead, the meek members of the resurrection, as she calls them. She imagines the dead as safe in their Alabaster. alabaster chambers. Alabaster refers to the tomb. It's also a stone associated with purity for its color. The use of chambers is evocative of a bedroom, a mere resting place for the dead while they wait

for Christ's second coming. And this meaning is reinforced by Dickinson's allusion to the resurrection later on. But why does she describe the dead as safe? What does it even mean for a dead person to be safe? We use that word mostly to describe people being secure from physical harm, but that's probably not what Dickinson means here. She could mean that they are safe from spiritual dangers, or she could mean that they are blissfully unconnected from the temporary upheavals of mortal life, and this is the meaning that unfolds in the second stanza.

When Dickinson goes on to describe the world above the tombs, it is all the language of motion. She describes worlds that scoop their arcs and firmaments, calling to mind the circular motion of heavenly bodies, the sun's path through the sky often being described as an arc. She throws in the word row, which is also a circular, repeating motion. Then she refers to diademes or crowns which drop, alluding to how earthly power constantly changes hands.

And the surrender of these earthly leaders, she writes, is soundless as dots on a disk of snow. The changes that seem monumental in an epic are really nothing but a pinprick on a disk of snow. History is made up of such upheavals. But back to the dead, the ones that Dickinson says are safe. I mentioned earlier that her images work on multiple levels, and I want to come back to that.

See, it isn't merely that the dead are safe from an ever-changing world. It's also the case that their influence endures long after they are gone. Perhaps that the legacy of the saints is greater than the legacy of kings. See, the image in the first stanza could very easily describe a lamp rather than a tomb. Stay with me on this one. Alabaster lamps were pretty popular in the 19th century, and often had lampshades of rich fabrics such as satin, calling back to that line about rafters of satin. If the alabaster tombs are equivalent to alabaster lamps, then, that makes the meek members of the

resurrection the source of light inside them. And this, of course, makes reference to Matthew 5. Christians are supposed to be the light of the world. They are supposed to be lamps, which are not hidden under a bowl, but placed on a stand to give light to a whole house. The good deeds of the just, then, continue to radiate long after they are gone. gone. Those who aspire to earthly glory are not so fortunate. Their deeds disappear into the plain of time, a single dot on a disk of snow. With all that said, let's dive in. Safe in their alabaster chambers by Emily Dickinson. Safe in their alabaster chambers, untouched by morning and untouched by noon, sleep the meek members of the resurrection,

rafter of satin, and roof of stone. And go the ears in the crescent above them. Worlds scoop their arcs and firmaments. Row. Diadems, drop. And doges surrender. Soundless as dots on a disk of snow. You've been listening to the Poetry Fix with Erica Kaiba.

If you enjoyed this episode, consider following the Poetry Fix on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. And if you have any poems you want to see in a future episode, email your suggestions, to The Poetry Fix at gmail.com. Join me next week, and we'll be reading T.S. Eliot's The Boston Evening Transcript.