Please comment on the use of purple in "Always Mine!" by Emily Dickinson.

This poem seems to be about the relationship that the
speaker has with her God and the way that it is never failing and is as certain as the
passing of the seasons and the coming of daylight each day. The use of purple occurs in
the second stanza of this poem, and appears in the following
context:

Old
the Grace, but new the Subjects--

Old, indeed, the
East,

Yet upon His Purple
Programme

Every Dawn, is
first.

The capital in "His
Purple Programme" clearly indicates that this phrase relates to God, and his programme
of creation and the way that the world is set to run. Normally, the colour purple is
associated with divine rule and majesty, and is used in other poems by Dickinson to
describe, for example, the colour of Christ's robes. The use here therefore picks up on
this divine significance. Since God is by his very nature divine and worthy to be
praised, his plan or "Programme" is therefore likewise divine and to be admired. The
colour purple bestows upon this programme the same kind of dignity and praise that
should be bestowed upon God himself.