“A Word dropped careless on a Page” Summary

“A Word dropped careless on a Page” Themes

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  The Power (and Danger) of the Written Word

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A Word dropped careless on a Page”

• Lines 1-2

  A Word dropped careless on a Page
  May stimulate an eye

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  When folded in perpetual seam
  The Wrinkled Maker lie

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Infection in the sentence breeds
  We may inhale Despair
  At distances of Centuries
  From the Malaria—

  

  

  

  

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“A Word dropped careless on a Page” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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“A Word dropped careless on a Page” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Careless
• Stimulate
• Perpetual seam
• Infection
• Breeds
• Malaria

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A Word dropped careless on a Page”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“A Word dropped careless on a Page” Speaker

“A Word dropped careless on a Page” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “A Word dropped careless on a Page”

More “A Word dropped careless on a Page” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem in Manuscript — See Dickinson's manuscript of this poem (including some of her thoughts about possible alternative word choices).

  • The Emily Dickinson Museum — Visit the website of the Emily Dickinson Museum to find a wealth of information about Dickinson's life and work.

  • A Short Biography — Read the Poetry Foundation's overview of Dickinson's life.

  • A Portrait of Dickinson — Take a look at a famous daguerrotype of Dickinson as a young woman—the only fully authenticated image of her to survive.

  • Dickinson's Legacy — Read novelist Helen Oyeyemi's reflections on what Dickinson means to her.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!