“Whose cheek is this?” Summary

“Whose cheek is this?” Themes

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  The Beauty and Fragility of Life

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Whose cheek is this?”

• Lines 1-3

  Whose cheek is this?
  What rosy face
  Has lost a blush today?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 4-5

  I found her—"pleiad"—in the woods
  And bore her safe away.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-10

  Robins, in the tradition
  Did cover such with leaves,
  But which the cheek—
  And which the pall
  My scrutiny deceives.

  

  

  

  

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“Whose cheek is this?” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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“Whose cheek is this?” 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.

• Blush
• Pleiad
• Bore
• Pall
• Scrutiny

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Whose cheek is this?”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Whose cheek is this?” Speaker

“Whose cheek is this?” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Whose cheek is this?”

More “Whose cheek is this?” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Original Poem — Check out "Whose is this?" in Dickinson's own hand.  

  • The Dickinson Museum — Find a trove of information about Dickinson's life and work at the Dickinson Museum. 

  • Dickinson's Legacy — Learn how Dickinson's secret poetry was discovered and preserved. 

  • Dickinson and Susan Gilbert — Learn more about the intense relationship between Dickinson and Susan Gilbert, the woman for whom this poem was written. 

  • Babes in the Wood — Check out an illustrated version of the old folk tale the poem alludes to in lines 6 and 7.

• 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

  • 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!

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!