Emily Dickinson, a poem on greatness ("We never know how high we are, till we are asked to rise")

This poem was written “about 1871, in pencil on the reverse of Mrs. Kingman's bill for milk.” (Franklin 1998:1038) Pollak (2017:264) suggests that the word “King,” in the last line, is inspired by the name “Kingman.”
Dickinson appears to say that every person has in themselves an inborn plan for greatness; but fear prevents all but a few from achieving it.
"[This poem] mourns the tendency of the Godlike self to refuse its potential... we could, if we would, make ourselves heroes of life, while now we only read of heroes in literature, and consider them extraordinary because, illogically, we fear the greatness within all of us." (Weisbuch 1989:33.)
"Cubit, as a linear measure from elbow to fingertip, is an archetypal dimension... It refers specifically to the human body--the reach of the arm. As ordinary, everyday citizens, we 'warp' our reach, turn it from its natural, 'preconcerted' direction, shrink it, & ignore the fact of our human potential." (Allen 2007:153.)
“In still other cases, it's a self-image problem that holds us back. We see ourselves as small, low, quiet, and insignificant. We might long for significance, but our belief that we are small-indeed, our comfort-zone of being small-always limits us. Emily Dickinson knew about this.” (Woods 2015:39.)
"No soul in which dwelt not a very noble and actual love and respect for the essentials could have written as she did of real triumph, of truth, of aspiration. Must not one who wrote [this poem] have had her ever-open shrine, her reverenced tribunal?" (Loomis 1894:x.)
Transcript:
We never know how high we are
Till we are asked to rise
And then if we are true to plan
Our statures touch the skies-
The Heroism we recite
Would be a normal thing
Did not ourselves the Cubits warp
For fear to be a King-
-
The music is "In Search Of Solitude" by Scott Buckley, licensed and adapted under CC BY 4.0.

[@ThomasWhichello]

We never know how high we are
Till we are asked to rise
And then if we are true to plan
Our statures touch the skies-
The Heroism we recite
Would be a normal thing
Did not ourselves the Cubits warp
For fear to be a King-

[@nicojara1]

What a great poem. Short but effective. And the way you delivered it brought out its meaning. Her poems are so deceptive. On the surface they seem simple, but then at closer look there is so much meaning behind every word. I really appreciate the sources in the descriptions too!