Emily Dickinson
*Emily was a famous poet and
she did not respond well to
spotlight. She was in a
troubled state of mind and
rarely went outside, and this is
the reason for her dark and
mysterious poems.
*Most of her works were
discovered after her death,
and it was then when she
became famous. The poem We
Grow Accustomed to the Dark
is one of her poems that was
found untitled, therefore
taking the name of the first
line from the first line of the
poem.
We grow accustomed to the Dark—
When light is put away—
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye—
A Moment— We uncertain step
For newness of the night—
Then—fit our Vision to the Dark—
And meet the Road—erect—
And so of larger—Darkness—
Those Evenings of the Brain—
When not a Moon disclose a sign—
Or Star—come out—within—
The Bravest—grope a little—
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead—
But as they learn to see—
Either the Darkness alters—
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight—
And Life steps almost straight.
The setting of the poem takes
place at nighttime around
midnight.
The title of the poem gives the
reader a clear view of what the
poem is about. The title
emphasizes on how the world is
a corruptive place and we as
society has accepted this fact
and we have adjusted our lives
around it.
The lamp gets turned off in the darkness
and symbolizes hopelessness and
desperation. The whole poem takes place
in the dark and the speaker describes
herself as getting lost in the darkness.
Having the lamp light up the darkness
then get turned off is disappointing to the
author and provides no solution to the
conflict at hand.
Trees are often times known as being
symbolic for wisdom. This poem talks
about the emotional and physically
struggles of a person. The trees play a
vital role in that if there were wisdom,
the troubles wouldn't be present
The other symbol is the
reoccurring theme of
darkness. The darkness is
symbolic for the emotional
confusion the author is
portraying. Nothing is clear
in the dark, just like
nothing is clear in the
speaker’s head.
“The Bravest—grope a little—And
sometimes hit a Tree”.
As the reader reads this, the image
of the lines should create a visual
effect and cause imagery. By using
the description of grope and hit a
tree, the reader can relate to the
feeling and image this.
The
word dark and darkness are repeated
several times throughout the poem. Every
time either word is mentioned in this poem,
the d is always capitalized. Emily was trying
to get the message across and wanted to
reader to feel what she meant by dark. She
wanted the reader to really think about the
dark and to have an emotional connection
with the speaker.
Another
important quality in this poem is all
the dashes. By using the dashes, Emily was
trying to convey a message that she is unsure
of what is around her and was trying to
create a more dramatic effect. Emily wanted
the reader to experience the feelings she had
by creating long, suspenseful pauses.
Emily is trying to relate finding one's place in a
corrupt society and the struggles that go with
that. She describes how society adjusts to the
corruptive world we live in and how we accept
this fact. She compares living in this type of
society to being lost in darkness. The reader can
gather how Emily feels by the last stanza she
wrote. Lines 17-20 state “Either the Darkness
alters--Or something in the sight adjusts itself to
Midnight--and life steps almost straight”. These
lines clearly state what Emily thinks of the world.
She claims that society had adjusted to the way
we have corrupted the world and we become
comfortable with it.
The main theme in this poem is the
message that this world had become
corrupt and society has just gone along
with it. Emily is trying to find her place in
society and struggles to find where she
belongs. The poem could be considered
implicit because to get the meaning of the
poem, the reader had to read between the
lines, and really think about the poem.