Homework sometimes inspires me

This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond—
Invisible, as Music—
But positive, as Sound—
It beckons, and it baffles—
Philosophy—don't know—
And through a Riddle, at the last—
Sagacity, must go—
To guess it, puzzles scholars—
To gain it, Men have borne
Contempt of Generations
And Crucifixion, shown—
Faith slips—and laughs, and rallies—
Blushes, if any see—
Plucks at a twig of Evidence—
And asks a Vane, the way—
Much Gesture, from the Pulpit—
Strong Hallelujahs roll—
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul—

-Emily Dickinson

I'm sorry this is a complicated poem. I've only begun to understand it after the 5th read through. She writes about the afterlife, what exists after death or beyond this world. She (the speaker, not necessarily Dickinson) is torn between thinking of it in religious terms and in scientific terms. You can see this in the word "Species" in line 2, which can mean scientific classification or the physical properties of the Eucharist (who would have guessed?!). She personifies Faith, saying that it slips, laughs it off, blushes if anyone saw it fall... and then looks to science to direct the way ("Plucks at a twig of Evidence/ And asks a Vane, the way"). However, she concludes the poem with "Narcotics cannot still the Tooth/ That nibbles at the soul", which I read to mean that medicine/science cannot satisfy the longing in our souls for religion to be true.

This is the assignment I'm working on tonight. It's times like these that I am reminded why I am studying what I am.