As Imperceptibly As Grief Flashcards
Introduction
Dickinson uses the poem ‘as imperceptibly as greif’ as a vehicle to process and express her overwhelming feelings of loss and grief. Perhaps in line with the tragic death of her second cousin and close friend Sophia Holland who passed when dickinson was just 14 years old. Much of her writinh seems premised on a feeling of abandonment and matching effort to deny, overcome, or reflect on a sense of solitude. In her poem she suggests that feelings of grief gradually soften and change over time, much like the seasons inevitably lapse into one another. She suggests that loss is an irrevocable part of the natural world, over which humans have no control
As imperceptibly as grief
foreshadows theme of death done by noun grief creating a melancholic tone to the poem
The summer lapsed away
Begins with a simile, compares ending of summer to that of grief fading away, however simile is u usual as it’s order is reversed, usually referent comes first but in this cause refer etc comes first, reference symbol ‘grief’ comes first, and ‘summer’ comes second, suggesting it is significant to the writer, as we know Dickinson was smth she was always preoccupied with, grief is inevitable and cyclical as summer comes every year
Use of dashes
Dashes represents peronas fragile and unstable mind, as the speaker struggles to focussed on one idea for too long perhaps cause of the weight of grief on their mind, causing them to become tangential and fragmented,
Creates a disjointed hesitant feel to the poem reflecting her fractured state of mind.
Twilight long begun
Through the quote she suggests that once the persons who bought light into her life was gone, the speakers life dims to become a protracted half-light, half-life.
Time imagery - passing of time, and therefore the cycle of life and death which reinforces idea and therefore grief is inevitable. Twilight is a time of chnage, can be hopeful of better or discouraging as it could herald in even more darkness
Of nature spending with herself’
Nature is personified as a women who is dislocated, seems to be a displaced reference to the reclusive poet hiding from the outside world
could be seen as Dickinson projecting and putting herself into the poem as she was isolated for most of her adult life
This morning foreign shon’
Forgein’ suggests that morning and associations of happiness and opportunitiy and life seems very unfamiliar of the speaker as their grief begins to fade,
Uses light imagery to suggest that loss seems to extinguish any sense of hope for the future of the person. She braeaks away from romantic notions that the morning brings new hope and beggining thought the phrase, implying that the idea of hope has grown unfamiliar in this new landscape of loss
A guest that would be gone’
Appeared to contextually link to Dickinsons rs with Charles Wandsworth, a married preacher, she is believed to have fallen in love with. Thought they shared some precious time together, it is believed that her love was unrequited, and when wadswrith moved away Dickinson became a recluse, receiving very few visitors,
Morning is personified as a guest who wants to leave reiterating the theme the idea that time must pass no matter how much we might want to dwell, time is more powerful than man
Middle use of dashes
Lots of dashes sigggests speakers thought are become fragmented as they pamic and realise that time is moving on seemingly without them, makes timeline seem more ambiguous with obsession with grief the speaker has lost track of time.
And thus
And thus’
Indicates a shift in mood, it has been very metaphorical and contemplative beforehand, but now makes the rest of the poem seem logical and like a conclusion, speaker has rationalised their grief and is ready to move in
Use of poem
Dickinson uses the poem as an act of catharsis, which helped her process and come to terms with her sense of loss.
Into the beautiful
The poem final line contains a positive tone due to the word beautiful, suggesting the passing of grief is worthy of celebrating
Full stop
Creates sense of finality, suggests that the grief is over, persona of poem has accepted their loss and moved on
The only terminal punctuation in the entire poem, which suggests she has reached a point of closure following loss
