Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December
10th, 1830.
Attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.
Aside from attending school, Dickinson’s daily activities in her
youth included: gardening, baking, taking part in church, reading
books, singing, playing piano, writing letters, and taking walks.
Dickinson was introduced to hard times during her childhood
after the death of several friends and family members.
Dickinson was known to scarcely leave her home or have any
visitors at all.
It was during this time period when she turned to writing as an
emotional outlet.
CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT!
Dickinson was one of America’s most early female poets.
She wrote over 1,700 poems but not all were discovered after her
death.
Her experiences in life greatly influenced her dark writing.
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Emily Dickinson never titled her poems; her
poems are identified by the first line.
In this case, “I measure every Grief I meet” is the
first line, the diction and capitalization of “grief”
helped the structure of the first line. Grief being
capitalized refers to a grieving person rather than
saying “a sad person” or “a grieving person”.
The second line “With narrow, probing, eyes
shows how the speaker is carefuly studying each
person. And then compares him/herself with
other grieves.
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“I wonder if it hurts to live -/ And if they have
to try-/ and whether- could they choose
between- / it would not be to die” These lines
introduce a common motif in all of Dickinson’s
poetry– death. The diction suggests that the
speaker isn’t living because of the grief he or
she is felling and whether grief cause the desire
to no longer live.
The tone of the first three stanzas is
contemplative which is emphasized with the
caesuras in almost each line.
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The speaker is given some hope that they will
see happiness because other grievers have “at
length, renew[ed] their smile” (2nd line in 4th
stanza).
The imagery of the next two lines take that bit
of hope back: “An imitation of a light/ That has
so little oil”. When I read these lines, I think of
a candle, that is fake and anyway is fading.
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“I wonder if when Years have piled-/ Some
Thousands – on the harm --/ That hurt them
early – such a lapse/ Could give them any
Balm”
The next stanza brings up the question, does
time heal with the choice of words (diction).
Balm means relief and the Years that have pile
other grieving people suggest the time that
people have been grieving.
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(Tiffany) The 6th stanza suggests that after so
long, the speaker realizes all the effort others
get to reach where they need to be.
“Death– is but one– and comes but once--/
and only nails the eyes”. The speaker feels that
he or she can’t force death upon themselves
and all they can do is wait.
“There’s Grief of Want– and grief of Cold--/ a
sort they call ‘Despair’–” The diction here
indicates many factors as to why the speaker
may feel grief and why others feel grief.
“A piercing Comfort it affords”. Piercing usually
is pain while comfort is calming or pleasure.
This paradox shows that the speaker is
somewhat content with the grieving because he
or she was used to it.
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I cannot live with You It would
be Life
And Life is over thereBehind the Shelf
Our Life-His Porcelain
Like a cup
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Metaphor: Dickinson uses the word “Life”
as a metaphor that represents the kind of
hardships and restrictions that the speaker
would ultimately face if they were to spend
the rest of their lives with their loved one.
Diction: Dickinson uses the phrase “Behind
the Shelf” to emphasize how unattainable
life would be with this person who the
speaker is in love with. Their love is
something that is literally unattainable, like
someone trying to grab something behind a
shelf.
Symbolism: “Life” is being referred to as a
porcelain cup in both stanzas 2 and 3,
Dickinson uses this object to symbolize the
fragileness of the speaker’s love, also to
show the impossibility of their relationship.
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And see you—freeze
Without my Right of Frost
So We must meet apart—
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(Throughout the poem’s
entirety)
Connotation: Dickinson uses the word
“frost” to represent the speaker’s meeting
with death, and the word “freeze” to
represent that of their lover’s. It seems as
though “frost” has a more positive
connotation than “freeze”, this is used to
indicate the slight desire of death that the
speaker had for themselves.
Paradox: How can two people “meet
apart”? Dickinson uses this contradiction
to represent the inevitable separation of
the lovers.
Dickinson creates the theme of forbidden
love and intertwines it with the tragic
irony that the speaker faces as they are
going through an intense phase of loving
someone and ultimately, finding
themselves alone and in complete
despair.