The saddest noise, the sweetest noise Summary & Analysis
by Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson's "The saddest noise, the sweetest noise" reflects on the bittersweet relationship between beauty and grief. Listening to the birds singing on a springtime morning, the speaker feels as much pain as pleasure: these "sweetest" of noises are also the "saddest," reminding the speaker of all the lost loved ones who used to enjoy spring at the speaker's side. Like most of Dickinson's poems, this one wasn't published until well after her death; it first appeared in print in the 1955 Complete Works of Emily Dickinson.

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