This poem mocks the type of women that Emily Dickinson despised — over-refined, genteel, aloof and snobbish. The poet achieves this through clever use of imagery — for example, convictions are described as “Dimity”, the latter a flimsy insubstantial fabric like these women. In the last stanza the poet, with a neat ironic twist, suggests that the low-status disciples of Jesus will barr these women from “Redemption”.

Structure
The poem comprises three quatrains or four-lined stanzas. The metrical rhythm is made up of alternating iambic tetrameters — that is four metrical feet comprising an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable — and iambic trimeters, that is three metrical feet per line. This creates an ironic jogging, ballad-style rhythm. There is a simple ABCB rhyme scheme.

Dickinson uses her characteristic dashes — there is no other punctuation — and capitalised nouns to create an appropriately choppy rhythm and emphasis.

Language and Imagery
The voice is that of a third party narrator, we can assume the poet. The language is concise and careful chosen. The overall tone is sarcastic.

Inventive imagery and description abound. Flawed human nature is described as “freckled”, implying that these genteel women recoil excessively from imperfection. For ironic comparison see Gerald Manley Hopkins' “Pied Beauty”. Delicate sensitivities are described as “Dimity”, (a type of flimsy fabric). The ludicrous nature of their snobbery is related to the simple working men, the fishermen, who were Jesus’s disciples.