As Imperceptibly as Grief Flashcards
1
Q
who wrote it
A
Emily Dickinson
2
Q
context
A
- Emily Dickinson wrote a lot about death and grief
- grew up next to a graveyard -> influenced her a lot
- she had a lot of experiences of sickness and death of those close to her
- Dickinson was influenced by the Romantic poets and Shakespeare
3
Q
when was it written
A
1860
4
Q
key quotes
A
‘Perfidy’
‘Morning foreign shone’
‘Our Summer made her light escape/ Into the Beautiful.’
5
Q
‘Perfidy’
A
- means untrustworthy
- speaker seems sad that summer is over
-> its not a betrayal (‘perfidy’) but she doesn’t welcome its end
-> the comparison between summer and grief in the first two lines highlights she feels the same way about grief - the loss of grief would make her feel a multitude of emotions
-> joy that she could finally move on with her life
-> guilt for living behind who or whatever she was grieving
-> acceptance that it is over
-> sadness as she remembers what she was grieving
-> emptiness as she has been used to to the feeling of grief for so long she doesn’t know what to feel anymore
6
Q
‘Morning foreign shone’
A
- ‘morning’ represents her accepting that her grief is gone
- ‘foreign’ highlights that she has spent so long consumed by grief that when it is gone, she doesn’t know how to feel and the loss of grief feels unnatural
-> feels strange to leave it behind - ‘shone’ has positive connotations and the reader may link it to the sunrise
-> symbolises new beginnings and hope
7
Q
‘Our Summer made her light escape/Into the Beautiful.’
A
- first person ‘our’ includes the reader - suggests that the experience of something coming to an end is universal, as its the only thing that inevitable in life
- as summer could ‘escape’ into something more beautiful, it suggests as grief fades as well, life will become more beautiful
- full stop at the end of ‘Beautiful’ highlights the finality of the idea - the narrator has finally accepted that her grief is gone
-> only full stop in the whole poem
