"As Imperceptibly as Grief" by Emily Dickinson

• Emily Dickinson describes her fear of death and her sense that time is slipping away, like the seasons.
• About the poet:

  • Emily Dickenson was an American poet in the 1800s.
  • She was a recluse (liked to isolate herself) and famously didn't leave her house or even her room for many years.
  • This poem was written following the deaths of several of her friends and family.
• SUMMARY

  • Dickinson compares grief to the passing of summer into autumn.
  • She establishes a melancholic tone through the imagery of "twilight" and "dusk". The idea of light fading symbolises the loss of her happiness and positivity.
  • She feels that positive things- symbolised by the bright "Morning" light- are too much for her. She says it is "foreign" to her, which implies she is beyond saving. 

• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FINAL LINE

  • The last line of the poem describes a release or an "escape" into the "beautiful", which shifts the tone to something far more positive- it implies she is going to heaven.
• MEANING AND CONTEXT

  • On the one hand, the poet is simply describing the passing of summer into autumn.
  • But "summer" is also a metaphor for her happiness and security, and she is describing how this has left her- this is why she compares this time passing to "grief" in the title/ first line.
  • The word "imperceptibly" in the title suggests that she feels as if her grief and pain is invisible to others, or that her grief has crept up on her unnoticed and now she is overwhelmed by it.
• Dickinson uses imagery of light, contrasts and alliteration to create a melancholic, uncertain tone.
• FORM AND STRUCTURE

  • Dickinson writes in one long stanza, which perhaps implies a long, continuous stream of thought.
  • She uses dashes to break up the poem, which creates a sense of an unstable, disjointed (broken up) state of mind.
• IMAGERY OF LIGHT

  • The phrase "dusk drew earlier in" creates a sense of darkness coming to get the narrator. We get the sense that the light disappeared unexpectedly.
  • Both "dusk" and "twilight" create a sense of uncertainty. They also create a sense of being trapped between light and dark, but unavoidably headed towards the dark.
• CONTRAST- HARROWING GRACE

  • Dickinson describes the "Morning" light as a "courteous yet harrowing Grace", which here represents goodness or a blessing.
  • The poetic voice suggests that she knows such positive things should feel kind or gentle ("courteous") but in fact she regards them as traumatic and distressing ("harrowing").
  • This contrast between how she should be able to feel about a kindness and how she actually feels about it highlights how vulnerable and depressed she feels.
• ALLITERATION

  • Dickinson uses subtle alliteration in the phrase "without a wing".
  • The word "wing" suggests she lacks support or a means to escape her current condition. The alliteration with the word "without" only emphasises her desperation.
• KEY QUOTATIONS:

  
  

  " Into the Beautiful"

  • This is the final line of the poem.
  • The word "beautiful" creates a positive ending for the poem. This implies she feels her final destination is heaven.
• KEY QUOTATIONS:

  
  

  "Our summer made her light escape"

  • The word " our" implies that the narrator perhaps does feel some connection to others, despite the feeling of isolation in the rest of the poem.
  • The word "escape" implies a feeling of release- and a positive sense she can transcend her difficulties.
• KEY QUOTATIONS:

  
  

  "To seem like Perfidy"

  • The poetic voice here says that the change has been too gradual to feel like a betrayal or "perfidy". This implies that she feels like she can't complain, but still feels as if she's been tricked by how quickly time has passed, and her happiness has left her.
• KEY QUOTATION:

  
  

  "The Summer lapsed away"

  • "Summer" is symbolic of Dickinson's happiness and positivity about life.
  • "Lapsed" implies that time is slipping away from her. The phrase begins to establish a melancholic tone.
• KEY QUOTATION:

  
  

  "Dusk drew earlier in"

  • The imagery of "dusk" creates a sense of being in a liminal space (on a threshold), caught between day and night. It implies the poetic voice feels trapped.
  • It also suggests an inevitable progression into darkness. This implies she feels her depression or death is inevitable. The fact that it "drew earlier in" makes it seem almost as if the darkness is coming to get her.