As Imperceptibly as Grief - Emily Dickinson Flashcards
when was this poem written?
1880
themes?
- power - the power of grief
- time - how grief passes slowly with time using the extended metaphor of the passing of summer
- man - this poem is strongly concerned about human emotion and how we process loss
- death - the feelings in this poem are only gained by losing someone by them dying or leaving your life
what is the meaning of this poem?
- Dickinson compares the fading of summer (as seen in ‘The Summer lapsed away’) to that of grief passing over time
- grief, or the passing of summer, is shown to be a very raw, intense emotion (‘distilled’) that is also quite isolating
- as the grief, or summer, nearly fades (‘dusk’), a new start is welcomed in, which feels strange, or ‘foreign’
- summer, or grief, then fades away completely into, or leaves behind, the ‘beautiful’ which could suggest a positive feeling
what is the mood of the poem?
- the poem’s tone is reflective and mournful
- Dickinson describes the feeling of grief by using many metaphors, such as ‘A Quietness distilled’, and remarks that positive things feel ‘foreign’
- the mood shifts towards the end of the poem, as signalled by ‘And thus’, and becomes positive
what is the motivation for the poet to write this poem?
- a known recluse, Dickinson has written a reflective, meditative poem about the nature of grief, a topic that fascinated her, given that her childhood bedroom overlooked a cemetery
- Dickinson seems to embrace grief in her writing, and appears to accept it, as it fades over time, just like the ‘summer’ she has extensively compared to it
- the positive tone at the end of the poem could be seen as Dickinson celebrating the joy that can be felt precisely because of grief passing
title: ‘As Imperceptibly as Grief’
LANGUAGE:
- the theme of death is foreshadowed, establishing its importance to the poem and creating a melancholic tone
‘As imperceptibly as Grief The Summer lapsed away’
IMAGERY:
- Dickinson usually uses the first line of the poem as the title
- this simile suggests that like summer passing, grief takes a long time to fade away
- this simile is reversed and by putting ‘Grief’ first, it emphasises its significance
- could suggest that grief is inevitable and cyclical
- Dickinson had seasonal depression and compares summer and morning here
‘Grief’
‘Summer’
‘Perfidy’
LANGUAGE:
- capitalisation of the nouns suggests their importance, and almost personifies them which could show how grief makes you mad
- Dickinson was a recluse so perhaps she saw concepts as people
- there are religious connotations to this which could suggest that she is thinking in a deeper or more spiritual way
’-‘
STRUCTURE:
- the dashes could represent the persona’s unstable mind
- she cannot stay focused on one idea for too long because of the weight of grief on her mind
- this causes their thoughts to become tangential and fragmented
- the dashes were removed when first published
- Dickinson uses a lot of dashes in her poems and this broken syntax is mimetic of her talking
- as the poem develops, the dashes could represent the speaker’s increasingly fragmented thoughts, and perhaps they are panicking as they know that time is moving on without them
- this makes the poems timeline more ambiguous and could suggest that with the speaker’s grief they have lost track of time
‘A Quietness distilled’ ‘Sequestered’
LANGUAGE:
- grief almost seems peaceful and comforting
‘As Twilight long begun’
IMAGERY:
- time imagery indicates a passing of time which could suggest that grief is inevitable
- this could suggest she is in a liminal state as ‘Twilight’ is calm and gentle
‘Or Nature spending with herself’
IMAGERY:
- nature has been personified as a woman who is isolation
- this could be seen as Dickinson projecting and putting her feelings into the poem as she was isolated for most of her adult life
‘begun’
‘Afternoon’
STRUCTURE:
- the imperfect half-rhyme could represent the speakers imperfect feelings and the pain of grief
‘Dusk drew earlier in’
IMAGERY:
- the passing of time is uncontrollable and inevitable which is similar to how death and grief is uncontrollable
- alliteration used
‘foreign’
‘harrowing Grace’
LANGUAGE:
- mornings association with happiness and oppurtunity and life feels very strange and unfamiliar to the persona as their grief begins to fade
- this is further emphasised by ‘harrowing Grace’ which suggests that something that is usually positive has become unsettling or distressing; this reinforces the idea that the speaker has been grieving for some time and any change to this comes as a bit of a shock to them
- religious language
- the ‘Morning’ is a temporal marker
‘As a Guest, that would be gone’
IMAGERY:
- time has been personified as a guest who wants to leave; this shows that time must pass no matter how much we might want it to dwell
- time is ultimately more powerful than man
- suggests the transitory nature of the seasons as summer has to leave
‘And thus’
LANGUAGE:
- the poet has been very metaphorical and contemplative beforehand, but now a logical and conclusive tone has been created
- the speaker has rationalised their grief and is ready to move on
‘Wing’
‘Keel’
LANGUAGE:
- both of these nouns are things that facilitate movement
- could suggest that summer and grief needs no assistance to pass as it is natural
- bird imagery
‘Our’
LANGUAGE:
- plural possessive pronoun which turns grief from something personal and singular into something shared and universal
- Dickinson is commenting on all grief and sadness
‘light’
LANGUAGE:
- this adjective suggests that the escape is something that is both natural and easy
- summer and grief don’t need assistance to pass
‘Into the beautiful’
LANGUAGE:
- ‘Beautiful’ helps to create a positive tone and could suggest that the passing of grief is something to celebrate
- this is overtly positive and is hopeful
- elevated tone
’.’
STRUCTURE:
- the only full stop in the poem which could symbolise acceptance
structure
- in the last four lines of the poem, there is a lack of dashes which could suggest that the speaker’s thoughts are collected and that their pain is over
- inconsistent rhyme scheme, and this internal rhyming is mimetic of moving and passing of time
- consistency in metre (8 and 6 syllables)
form
- monologue
poet context
- American poet in the 19th century
- obsessed with and afraid of death
- when she was 14 one of her closest friends died of typhus and this traumatised her, so she was sent away to stay with her family in Boston to recover
- between the ages of 10 and 25, her bedroom window overlooked a cemetery in which 5 of her friends were buried; lots of her poems focus on domesticity
- had a religious revival in 1845 and had a temporary religious experience - it is suggested in some of her writing that she practiced her faith at home and abandoned formal worship, which would have been outrageous at this time
- she was an avid writer of letters
- she was a recluse
- acted as a carer for her mother from the 1850s till her mother died in 1882 (this poem was written during this time)
- mostly published posthumously, which shows how most of her writing was personal as it was not intended for an audience
glossary - what does imperceptible/y mean?
so slight, gradual, or subtle, as to not be percieved
glossary - what does lapsed mean?
vanished or expired
glossary - what does perfidy mean?
deceit
glossary - what does distilled mean?
purification of a liquid OR having being shortened so that only the essential meaning remains
glossary - what does sequestered mean?
isolated and hidden away
glossary - what does courteous mean?
polite
glossary - what does harrowing mean?
distressing
glossary - what does keel mean?
part of a boat OR a ridge along the breastbone of many birds to which the flight muscles are attached
