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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The poem opens with the statement that the Earth we see is not the entirety of the human experience: “this World is not Conclusion” (Line 1). Death does not end human existence: It may conclude the time on Earth, but it will also grants entrance into the next world, or Heaven, to join the mysterious, spiritual “species” that “stands beyond” (Line 2). However, the speaker is confident of little else besides the fact that eternal life in Heaven exists.
Subsequent lines attempts to explain the nature of the eternal afterlife and its effect on human beings in this world. Although the next world is as definite and “positive” as “Sound” (Line 4), it is also as “Invisible” as “Music” (Line 3)—in other words, perceptible to only some of the senses, intangible but definitely extant. The speaker employs similes to depict eternity, which defies direct description and can only be compared to Earth concepts like sound and music. Although eternity is invisible and unknowable, the speaker can still be confident that it exists just as purely auditory phenomena exist.
Nevertheless, eternity remains a mystery for everyone. The idea of Heaven both “beckons” and “baffles” (Line 5) the enquiring mind, no matter how elevated.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson