As Imperceptibly as Grief Flashcards
Form
Phonology - rhythm changes to show confusion/desperation
Half-rhymes create a faltering rhythm to represent powerful emotions that are difficult to comprehend and express
The iambic meter mirrors the pattern of everyday speech, making it sound as if the narrator is confessing her honest thoughts
Dashes create long pauses for a reflective mood
Single stanza - there are no sudden changes, it is gradual
Poems lines are generally short, giving sense of simplicity which contradicts the incredibly intricate emotions- could suggest Dickinson’s failure to comprehend her own emotions and therefore her own attempts to dim them
Half-rhymes suggest she isn’t completely at peace with her feelings/they are difficult to comprehend (e.g. begun, afternoon’
Only one end-stop at the end , finality of the end of grief , the less punctuation dampens the reflective tone and create a sense of decisiveness and progress.
Structure
Cyclical - start and end with a personification of Summer
The start and the end of the poem juxtapose / the ending indicates acceptance
Series of natural metaphors which reveal the gradual fading of prom
Metaphor established in athe first two lines
Repetition of ‘imperceptible’ echos the first line, emphasising gradual disappearance
Sense of stillness in ‘quietness’ and ‘sequestered’ is not isolating but comforting
Personification at the end gives finality
Language
Semantic field of death
Abstract poem
Represents the stages of grief
Use of summer as a prolonged metaphor causes empathy - use of metaphor could suggest that Dickinson dislikes explicitly considering her own grief
lapsed away
Reminiscent tone
Suggests the grief will return, inevitability of death of loved ones
As Twilight long begun
Colour imagery
Darkness has crept in and you don’t know when it happened
Absence of light for a long time
herself
Nature personified as a woman
Gentle imagery
Makes Grief more painful
The morning foreign shone
Colour imagery
Happiness seems far away
It’s like a Beacon fading
Feels strange to leave grief
Harrowing Grace
Perfidy
Oxymoron
Deep, unsettling idea
Guilt experienced for accepting grief
Grief involves contradictory emotions
Guiltttty
Our summer
Happiness is for everyone
It is a right
Possessive adjective includes the reader
Light escape
As if happiness is being overwhelmed with grief
the Beautiful
The past
Horribly melancholy end
End of guilt
Temporal phrases
Summer Twilight Afternoon Dusk Morning
Time flies in happiness and slows to allow rumination during grief- try to enjoy it now.
Inevitable
Seasonal imagery symbolised the gradual fading of grief, as the weather becomes more temperate.
Melancholy atmosphere
‘Sequestered’ ‘Escape into the beautiful’ ‘Twilight’ ‘Dusk’ ‘Distilled’
Fluctuations between depression and comfort as Dickinson struggles with her guilt
Light imagery
Adds to the sense of inevitability of time passing, grief and acceptance and theme of death
