“I did not reach Thee” Summary

“I did not reach Thee” Themes

• 

  The Difficult Journey Toward God

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I did not reach Thee”

• Lines 1-6

  I did not reach Thee
  But my feet slip nearer every day
  Three Rivers and a Hill to cross
  One Desert and a Sea
  I shall not count the journey one
  When I am telling thee

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-13

  Two deserts but the year is cold
  So that will help the sand
  One desert crossed—
  The second one
  Will feel as cool as land
  Sahara is too little price
  To pay for thy Right hand

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 14-19

  The Sea comes last—Step merry feet
  So short we have to go
  To play together we are prone
  But we must labor now
  The last shall be the lightest load
  That we have had to draw

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 20-27

  The Sun goes crooked—
  That is Night
  Before he makes the bend
  We must have passed the Middle Sea
  Almost we wish the End
  Were further off
  Too great it seems
  So near the Whole to stand

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 28-32

  We step like Plush
  We stand like snow
  The water murmur new
  Three rivers and the Hill are passed
  Two deserts and the Sea!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-34

  Now Death usurps my Premium
  And gets the look at Thee—

  

  

  

  

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“I did not reach Thee” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Parataxis

  

  

  

  

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“I did not reach Thee” 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.

• Thee
• Draw
• Whole
• Plush
• Usurps
• Premium

• • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I did not reach Thee”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“I did not reach Thee” Speaker

“I did not reach Thee” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “I did not reach Thee”

More “I did not reach Thee” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem in Manuscript — See images of the poem in Dickinson's own handwriting.

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

  • A Brief Biography — Read the Poetry Foundation's short introduction to Dickinson.

  • Dickinson's Legacy — Read a tribute to Dickinson by contemporary writer Helen Oyeyemi.

  • The Poem Set to Music — Listen to a charmingly strange musical rendition of the poem.

• 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—

  • 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 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!