“If I can stop one heart from breaking” Introduction

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“If I can stop one heart from breaking” Summary

“If I can stop one heart from breaking” Themes

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  The Value of Small Acts of Kindness

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “If I can stop one heart from breaking”

• Lines 1-2

  If I can stop one heart from breaking,
  I shall not live in vain;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  If I can ease one life the aching,
  Or cool one pain,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-7

  Or help one fainting robin
          
  Unto his nest again,
  I shall not live in vain.

  

  

  

  

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“If I can stop one heart from breaking” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“If I can stop one heart from breaking” 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.

• In vain
• Ease
• The aching
• Unto

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “If I can stop one heart from breaking”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“If I can stop one heart from breaking” Speaker

“If I can stop one heart from breaking” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “If I can stop one heart from breaking”

More “If I can stop one heart from breaking” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of the poem.

  • The Dickinson Museum — Learn more about Dickinson's life and work, and even take a virtual tour of her Amherst home, at the website of the Emily Dickinson Museum!

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

  • Dickinson's Meters — Dive deep into Dickinson's hymn-inspired rhythms.

  • Dickinson's Materials — An interesting article about Dickinson's writing methods. 

• 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 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

  • 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!