As Imperceptibly as grief

• Emily Dickinson was an American poet who lived in the 19th century between 1830 and 1886
• Dickinson was obsessed with and very afraid of death, with one of her closest friends dying of typhus when she was 13
• Between the age of 10 and 25, Dickinson's bedroom overlooked a cemetery in which five of her friends were buried
• Dickinson was a recluse who left the house less and less frequently in her adulthood, acting as a carer for her declining mother
• Fewer than a dozen of Dickinson's poems were published in her lifetime, suggesting her writing was very personal
• Imperceptibly

  So slight, gradual or subtle as not to be perceived
• Elapsed


  Vanished or expired
• Perfidy

  Deceit
• Distilled

  The purification or shortening of something to only its essential meaning
• Sequestered

  Isolated and hidden away
• Courteous

  Polite
• Harrowing

  Distressing
• The poem's title "As Imperceptibly as Grief" foreshadows the theme of death
• The dashes in the poem represent the fragile and unstable mind of the speaker, as their thoughts become tangential and fragmented due to the weight of grief</b>
• Nature is personified as an isolated woman, which could reflect Dickinson's own feelings of isolation
• The "quietness" and "sequestered" imagery suggest the isolation associated with grief is peaceful and comforting
• The imperfect rhyme scheme reflects the speaker's imperfect feelings and the pain of grief
• The passing of grief

  Compared to the passing of summer
• Harrowing grace

  Something positive (grace) has become unsettling or distressing
• Morning


  Personified as a guest who wants to leave, reiterating the idea that time must pass
• The poem contains many dashes, suggesting the speaker's thoughts are becoming increasingly fragmented as they panic about time moving on
• The final four lines

  Contain a shift in mood, becoming more logical and like a conclusion as the speaker has rationalized their grief and is ready to move on
• "Beautiful"

  Suggests the passing of grief is something worth celebrating
• The poem shifts from being reflective and mournful to slightly more positive by the end
• " The Summer lapsed away "
• what is " as Imperceptibly as grief"?

  A simile that may suggest that like summer passing away , grief fades away
• what does the use of everyday language suggest?

  that the feeling of grief and loss is a normal and universal experience
• " Twilight long begun "
• " Nature spending with herself "
• what happened after 1865?

  Dickenson rarely left her home but she was a prolific letter writer
• what did Dickens experience in 1858?

  an unknown trauma
• what did Dickinson think about marriage and domestic life?

  she thought it was a drugary and limiting
• " And thus " ?

  volta suggest a change in tone - conclusive and ready to move on
• " Our Summer made her light escape into something beautiful "
• what does the light symbolism show?

  hope and weightlessness and ambiguous ending which is both joyful yet mournful