As Imperceptibly as Grief

Question 1

Significance of the Title

Answer 1

-Imperceptibly implies that people are unable to sense the speaker’s pain as the grief is gradual

-Grief implies passing of summer + time, life-changing event.

Question 2

What is AIAG about?

Answer 2

It is about Emily dickinson’s fear of death, feeling that she has been tricked by time.

Question 3

‘Twilight long begun’

Answer 3

-Suggests that grief is overtaking her happiness

-Melancholic tone

Question 4

‘Summer lapsed away’

Answer 4

Images of the end of a day/season.

-Death is coming

Question 5

‘Summer made her light escape into the beautiful’

Answer 5

-Passage of time is inevitable

-the ‘beautiful’ is relating to heaven and her acceptance of death.

-Final words of poem

Question 6

What is different about the tone of AIAG at beginning and end

Answer 6

-The tone at the end is more hopeful than the rest.

Question 7

Context AIAG

Answer 7

-Emily Dickinson lived in Massachusetts, USA 1830-86.

-She was recluse so did not the leave often

-Before she wrote this poem several family members and friends had died.

Question 8

Structure in AIAG

Answer 8

-Dickenson uses a series of dashes to create a hesitant and disjointed pace to the poem, reflecting her own fractured state of mind.