“As imperceptibly as grief” Summary

“As imperceptibly as grief” Themes

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  Life, Loss, and Time

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “As imperceptibly as grief”

• Lines 1-4

  As imperceptibly as grief
  The summer lapsed away,—
  Too imperceptible, at last,
  To seem like perfidy.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  A quietness distilled,
  As twilight long begun,
  Or Nature, spending with herself
  Sequestered afternoon.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  The dusk drew earlier in,
  The morning foreign shone,—
  A courteous, yet harrowing grace,
  As guest who would be gone.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  And thus, without a wing,
  Or service of a keel,
  Our summer made her light escape
  Into the beautiful.

  

  

  

  

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“As imperceptibly as grief” Symbols

• 

  Light

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“As imperceptibly as grief” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Oxymoron

  

  

  

  

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• Synecdoche

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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“As imperceptibly as grief” 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.

• Imperceptibly
• Lapsed
• Perfidy
• Distilled
• Sequestered
• Harrowing
• Wing
• Keel

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “As imperceptibly as grief”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“As imperceptibly as grief” Speaker

“As imperceptibly as grief” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “As imperceptibly as grief”

More “As imperceptibly as grief” Resources

• External Resources

  • Cynthia Nixon interview — A clip in which actor Cynthia Nixon discusses playing Emily Dickinson in the brilliant film, A Quiet Passion. 

  • Dickinson's Meter — A valuable discussion of Emily Dickinson's use of meter.

  • In Our Time podcast — Experts talk about Emily Dickinson's life and work on the BBC's In Our Time podcast/radio show.

  • Other poems — A link to numerous other Emily Dickinson poems.

  • Educational resources — Resources for students about Emily Dickinson provided by the Dickinson museum (situated in her old house).

  • The Poem in Animation — A somewhat spooky animated version of the poem, complete with reading.

• 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—

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • 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!