I dwell in Possibility – Summary & Analysis
by Emily Dickinson

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The Full Text of “I dwell in Possibility –”

1I dwell in Possibility –

2A fairer House than Prose –

3More numerous of Windows –

4Superior – for Doors –

5Of Chambers as the Cedars –

6Impregnable of eye –

7And for an everlasting Roof

8The Gambrels of the Sky –

9Of Visitors – the fairest –

10For Occupation – This –

11The spreading wide my narrow Hands

12To gather Paradise –

  • “I dwell in Possibility –” Introduction

    • Emily Dickinson's "I dwell in Possibility" was first published four years after Dickinson's death, in the posthumous collection Poems (1890). In the poem, a speaker juxtaposes her own metaphorical house, called "Possibility," with an inferior house called "Prose," making it clear that the poem is meta-poetry—poetry about poetry. The speaker discusses what makes this house of poetic possibility great, claiming it offers her a way into "paradise" itself. The poem is a powerful tribute to the imaginative possibilities of poetry—the art form to which Dickinson dedicated her life.

  • “I dwell in Possibility –” Summary

    • I live in a house called Possibility (a metaphor for poetry). This is a more beautiful and truthful house than the one called Prose. It has far more windows and better doors than Prose does.

      The House of Possibility has rooms as strong as cedar wood, into which the outside world can't see. For its eternal roof, the house has the sky itself.

      Visitors to this house are the most beautiful and virtuous kinds of people. My job here is the one I'm doing right now: opening up my own little hands, I collect poetry, the divine substance of the heavens themselves.

  • “I dwell in Possibility –” Themes

    • Theme The Power of Poetry

      The Power of Poetry

      “I dwell in Possibility” is a poem that celebrates poetry itself. Poetry, argues the poem, offers its writers and readers an imaginative world of near-limitless “Possibility.” This contrasts with prose (things like novels, short stories, and essays), which the speaker believes to be more limited and restrictive (even if poetry uses stricter forms than prose in a technical sense). “I dwell in Possibility” is thus a great example of meta-poetry—poetry about the art of poetry.

      The speaker presents poetry as a metaphorical house that’s “fairer” than prose’s house. In other words, poetry is more beautiful, just, and truthful than prose. This is because, according to the speaker, poetry offers greater room for freedom and creativity. Its metaphorical house has more windows and doors than that of prose. This suggests that poetry makes it easier to try out multiple perspectives or viewpoints (windows), perhaps letting in more of the light of truth, and has more "doors" that open on the realm of the imagination.

      If a poetry is a house, then poetry’s stanzas (like the quatrains on display here) are like rooms in that house, made of fragrant cedar wood. Stanzas, like rooms in a house, give a poem its structure, but the poem doesn’t see this as a limitation. On the contrary, when it comes to poetry’s ability to unlock the imagination, the sky is the limit! To that end, the speaker’s poetry-house doesn’t have an actual roof; instead, if someone looks up in one of its cedar rooms, they’ll see the “everlasting” sky. In this way, the poem also links poetry with both the natural world and the divine, making it a kind of portal to both nature and the heavens above. Poetry expands the poet’s world.

      Poetry also has the best readers, according to the poem. That’s probably because reading poetry has something in common with writing poetry: both require an effort of the imagination, and a willingness to bring sensitivity and patience to the text. Poems aren’t puzzles to figure out: they’re more like little rooms to explore, beautiful forests to get lost in, journeys to undertake—in which it is the journey, rather than the destination, that really matters. This world of imaginative possibility represents what the speaker calls “Paradise"; the poet’s work is to “gather” small parts of this paradise together into readable form. But the poem only means something when the reader comes along. The reader, through the act of reading, helps create the poem, too. Poetry thus not only expands the poet’s world, but creates a special bond between poet and reader.

      Poetry’s potential for freedom, creativity, and connection becomes all the more powerful when considered in the context of Dickinson’s life. For one thing, this emphasis on the “Possibility” of poetry transforms the home (the speaker’s metaphorical house) from a domestic world in which the women of Dickinson’s day were expected to cook, clean, and care for children into something more exciting. Dickinson herself was famously reclusive. But this poem suggests that, though she was often physically in the same place, her creative work allowed her to travel far beyond the confines of her room—and her era.

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I dwell in Possibility –”

    • Lines 1-2

      I dwell in Possibility –
      A fairer House than Prose –

      As is often the case with Dickinson's poems, "I dwell in Possibility" features a first-person speaker. This "I," often taken to be Dickinson herself, "dwells" (or lives) in a place of potential—of "Possibility."

      "Possibility" itself, in other words, is a kind of home for the speaker—an idea that line 2 makes even clear by metaphorically calling "Possibility" a "House." What's more, this house is "fairer" than that of "Prose"—it's more beautiful, just, and truthful.

      The mention of prose helps readers grasp what the speaker means by "possibility" in the first place. Prose refers to regular written or spoken language that isn't poetry. Considering that this is a poem, and that poetry and prose are often (somewhat unfairly!) positioned as polar opposites, it becomes clear here that this is a poem about the art of poetry itself. When the speaker talks about "Possibility," then, she's talking about poetry. To her, poetry is possibility, and this is the world in which she lives.

      The alliteration of "Possibility" and "Prose" draws attention to the contrast the speaker is making between these two forms of writing. These lines also have a fairly steady iambic (da-DUM) meter:

      I dwell | in Pos- | sibil- | ity
      A fair- | er House | than Prose

      The first line contains four iambs (four da-DUMs), making it a line of iambic tetrameter. The second line has three iambs, making it iambic trimeter. This pattern, known as common measure or common meter, turns up in most of Dickinson's work. The speaker will continue to use this pattern throughout the poem, whose rhythm, sounds, and structure all remind the reader that this piece of writing is exactly what it praises: poetry.

    • Lines 3-4

      More numerous of Windows –
      Superior – for Doors –

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    • Lines 5-8

      Of Chambers as the Cedars –
      Impregnable of eye –
      And for an everlasting Roof
      The Gambrels of the Sky –

    • Lines 9-12

      Of Visitors – the fairest –
      For Occupation – This –
      The spreading wide my narrow Hands
      To gather Paradise –

  • “I dwell in Possibility –” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Alliteration

      There's only one example of alliteration in "I Dwell in Possibility," and it comes in the first two lines:

      I dwell in Possibility –
      A fairer House than Prose –

      The alliteration here helps to set up the juxtaposition between "Possibility" (poetry) on the one hand and "Prose" on the other. The sound itself is plosive, meaning it has more of a stand-out pop than softer consonants. That striking quality underlines the energy and surprise of this match-up between poetry and prose—and draws the reader's attention to the speaker's use of the word "Possibility" to mean poetry.

      Alliteration is also a distinctly poetic technique! It's rarely found in prose, so its appearance here highlights one of the main differences between the two competing forms. While prose writing tends to avoid obvious sound patterning (though it doesn't always!), poetry is, on one level, the art of language-based sound patterning. Just look at this poem: every word is carefully (but also instinctively) selected as much for its sound as for its literal meaning. While the poem uses consonance and assonance more than alliteration, this early use of alliteration announces that, in this house of "Possibility," there is a poet at work.

    • Assonance

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    • Caesura

    • Consonance

    • Enjambment

    • Extended Metaphor

    • Juxtaposition

    • Metonymy

  • “I dwell in Possibility –” 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.

    • Dwell
    • Fairer/Fairest
    • Prose
    • Superior
    • Chambers
    • Cedars
    • Impregnable
    • Gambrels
    • Paradise
    Dwell
    • Live and exist, with the secondary meaning of "contemplate."

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I dwell in Possibility –”

    • Form

      "I dwell in Possibility" is a twelve-line poem consisting of three quatrains (four-line stanzas)—a characteristic form for Dickinson. The poem's use of common meter and an ABCB rhyme scheme makes these quatrains specifically ballad stanzas. This distinctly musical-sounding type of stanza was often used in church hymns, which were a major influence on Dickinson's style. It's a common, recognizable poetic form—a useful effect here, since the poem is talking about poetry!

      The quatrain shape is also important because those four-line stanzas have a box-like appearance on the page. This creates a visual parallel between the poem and the speaker's mention of "chambers," or rooms. The poem itself is made out of square, well-built, compact shapes—just like the speaker's imagined House of Possibility. (The word "stanza" itself comes from the Italian for "room.") This use of form—the chiseling of language into a particular shape—is one of the defining characteristics of poetry, and therefore one of the things that makes poetry a "fairer House than Prose."

    • Meter

      "I dwell in Possibility" uses four-line stanzas which alternate between lines of iambic tetrameter and trimeter—that is, lines of either four or three metrical feet called iambs, each of which follows a da-DUM rhythm. This is by far the most common meter in Dickinson's poetry; appropriately enough, it's known as common meter. The first two lines are a good example of this meter at work:

      I dwell | in Pos- | sibil- | ity
      A fair- | er House | than Prose

      The first line has four iambs (four da-DUMs), while the second has three. Common meter has a distinctly poetic sound to it (contrast it with a free verse poem to see the difference), which is important in a poem about poetry! The poem views poetry as a superior form to prose precisely because of the way that things like meter and rhyme bring music to the words, and pack meaning into the small room-like shapes of the stanzas.

      The metrical sound here is also confident and controlled. The speaker's "occupation" is writing poetry (which she calls "gather[ing] Paradise"), and the speaker's use of meter suggests the kind of skill and craft that come through dedication and practice.

      Church hymns, which often use common meter, were probably a big influence on Dickinson's choice of this rhythm. But in using the sounds of hymns, Dickinson also makes the meter her own. Here, common meter helps the poem create its own idiosyncratic and individual vision of "Paradise."

    • Rhyme Scheme

      "I dwell in Possibility" uses a regular rhyme scheme throughout its three stanzas. It runs:

      ABCB

      This is a common pattern in Dickinson's work. So is this poem's use of slant rhyme, which toys with the reader's expectations of a full rhyming sound.

      In the first stanza, line 2's end-word ("Prose") is meant to rhyme with line 4's "Doors." And they do rhyme—almost! But "Prose" sounds closer to "Windows" at the end of line 3, though it's clear from the rest of the pattern that this is not part of the overall scheme. Perhaps this triple almost-rhyme suggests the "numerous" possibilities of poetry: in these complicated, interweaving sounds, the speaker showcases her control of the raw materials of language.

      The only true rhyme in the poem appears in the second stanza, matching "eye" and "sky". The simplicity of the rhyme suggests clarity and precision. Metaphorically speaking, the House of Poetic Possibility doesn't have a roof—the sky's the limit! This clear rhyme evokes that bold freedom.

      The last rhyming pair in the poem is the most delicate of all, matching "This" at the end of line 10 with "Paradise." This slant rhyme is gentle, almost imperceptible, suggesting the speaker's skill and sensitivity as a poet. It also explicitly pairs poetry—"This"—with beauty, truth, and joy ("Paradise").

  • “I dwell in Possibility –” Speaker

    • The poem's first-person speaker claims to live in a metaphorical house called "Possibility." As she contrasts this house with an inferior one called "Prose," it's clear that the house of "Possibility" is poetry itself. The speaker, like Dickinson herself, seems to be a poet—so it's reasonable to detect at least a hint of autobiography in this poem. Dickinson, too, constructed entire worlds through her poetry, even though she spent most of her time alone in her room.

      As the speaker develops her metaphor—poetic possibility as a kind of house—she explains what makes poetry "superior" to prose in vivid, concrete terms. Poetry has more windows, better doors, rooms made of beautiful, durable wood, and the heavens themselves for a roof. The speaker also praises those who read poetry, calling the "visitors" to this house the "fairest" kind of people out there.

      The speaker also believes that poetry is a divine art which puts people in touch with "Paradise." Indeed, it is the poet's job "to gather Paradise" through the act of poetic composition. This speaker's vision is both grounded and sublime, humorous and serious.

  • “I dwell in Possibility –” Setting

    • The poem takes place in the speaker's imagination, in a "House" called "Possibility." This "Possibility" is poetry itself, as opposed to the more limited house of "Prose." As if to prove poetry's capacity for imaginative freedom, the speaker takes the reader on a tour of this metaphorical house, describing its architecture in detail. She gives the dreamy poem-house windows, doors, rooms—and the sky for a roof. It's a house where visitors—readers—are welcome and valued.

      This specific choice of extended metaphor is both well-established and radical. On the one hand, poets have often compared poetry to architecture. The word "stanza" even comes from the Italian for "room." But on the other hand, it's daring for the speaker to depict herself having poetry as an "Occupation." In Dickinson's 19th-century middle-class America, women were generally expected to be in the house—but not to write poetry. To be a woman was often to work as an undervalued laborer, performing an endless list of chores and rearing children. The speaker's house, then, represents a quietly revolutionary way of life. Her body may be indoors, but her spirit lives in limitless "Possibility."

  • Literary and Historical Context of “I dwell in Possibility –”

      Literary Context

      Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) stands out as a unique figure in her era—and in poetry ever since. Most of Emily Dickinson's poetry was not published during her lifetime, and "I dwell in Possibility" is no exception. One of her few contemporary readers, the minister and author Thomas Wentworth Higginson, warned her against publishing her poems despite what he called her "wholly new and original poetic genius." While Dickinson indeed lived quietly and published only a few anonymous poems during in her own lifetime, the confidence of her verse shows that she was firmly (and rightly) persuaded of her own poetic immortality. This poem discusses how, for Dickinson, the act of poetic composition itself represents the freedom of the imagination—in a word, "Possibility."

      While Dickinson was one of a kind, it would be wrong to cast her as a completely isolated figure. She admired writers like William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson for their love of nature, and their belief that poetry could help an individual transcend the mundane "Prose" of everyday existence. (Read "They Shut me up in Prose" for another example of Dickinson linking prose with mental imprisonment.) Among the other books in her library were works by the Brontë sisters and William Shakespeare.

      While all these figures were big influences on Dickinson's thought, in sound and style her work borrows as much from church hymns as from any other writer. For example, this poem showcases her characteristic common meter, which gave her verse its distinctly musical and memorable sound.

      "I dwell in Possibility" is part of a long-running tradition of poems about poetry. Poets as far back as the ancient Roman Ovid wrote in praise of their own art (and their own skill with that art). But while literary history is full of poets making bold claims about the merits of their "everlasting" poetry (Shakespeare's "Sonnet 55," for example), this poem suggests that the act of composition itself is the true way to "Paradise."

      Even though she rarely left her room, Dickinson travelled far and wide in her imagination. It's incredible to think that, without the commitment of friends, family, and publishers after her death, English-language poetry wouldn't know Dickinson at all: she's become one of the most beloved and influential writers of all time.

      Historical Context

      Emily Dickinson lived in small-town Amherst, Massachusetts all her life. She grew up in a strict Puritan environment which placed great emphasis on religious rules and social codes; in fact, her family line can be traced back to the 16th-century Puritan settler John Winthrop. Dickinson's religious upbringing shows itself in the hymn-like tones and rhythms of her poetry.

      In 19th-century Amherst, men ruled the house and the world. Dickinson's father was an influential politician who, in her own words, had a "pure and terrible heart." It's even thought that she had to ask him for permission to write poetry. Women writers were still a novelty in the 19th century, and many (like George Eliot) first published under male pseudonyms. Dickinson got around this problem by barely publishing at all! The few poems she printed during her lifetime, she printed anonymously.

      By all accounts, Dickinson's life was extremely unusual for the time. Most women were expected to marry and have children, but she never did; in fact, towards the end of her life she barely spoke to anyone but a small circle of close friends and family. She spent most of her time shut up in her room, "gather[ing] Paradise" through her poetry, relatively immune to what was taking place outside in the wider world. This was no mean feat, given that the American Civil War took place between 1861 and 1865. While Dickinson certainly had strong opinions about this war (she was firmly on the Union side of the conflict), the drama of her own life was interior, not political. Confined by a sexist society, she found scope for her towering brilliance within the four walls of her room.

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