Emily Dickinson Lexicon

Van Dieman's Land, proper n. [ED's variant spelling of Van Diemen's Land; Dutch < Diem, river in the Netherlands.]

Tasmania; British penal colony; island southeast of Australia; territory named after Anthony Van Diemen, governor of Dutch East Indies; [fig.] zero; abyss; oblivion; nothingness; infinity; underworld; place down under; earth's lower hemisphere; spirit world for the dead.