as imperceptibly as grief

• context: Dickinson was recluse so didnt leave the house often. before she wrote this poem several family members and friends had died
• structure: uses a series of dashes to create a hesitant and disjointed pace to the poem
• "the summer lapsed away" - verb 'lapsed' reinforced first suggestion of loss and endings
• "into the beautiful" - final line has a positive tone and evokes ideas of heaven perhaps seeing death more optimistically as a means of freedom from worldly grief