Back from the cordial Grave I drag thee
He shall not take thy Hand
Nor put his spacious arm around thee
That none can understand
He shall not take thy Hand
Nor put his spacious arm around thee
That none can understand
(F.1649/J.1625)
[1] Grave:: a steward (OED grave n.3), and death. The devil Mephistopheles (a symbol of death) became Faust's steward to seduce him to hell. cordial:: warm, affectionate, the way Mephistopheles treated Faust. thee:: Faust. I:: an angel; Faust was saved by angel in Goethe's version of Faust; in Christopher Marlowe's version Faustus, he went to hell. Dickinson's library contained Goethe's version.
[2] He, take thy Hand:: Mephistopheles took Faust's hand to visit the world.
[3] spacious arm:: enormous power of the devil.
[4] none can understand:: Faust wanted to "learn what it is that holds the world together in its inmost core," (Faust: A Dramatic Poem By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1859 Boston, the same version in Dickinson's family library). Mephistopheles was supposed to show Faust the world's "inmost core" that none can understand.