20 pages • 40 minutes read
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.
Dickinson opens her poem with the admission that the “Only News” (Line 1) she reads is the “Bulletins” (Line 2) from “Immortality” (Line 3) that she sees “all Day” (Line 2). For Dickinson, “Immortality” is a frequent euphemism for death and the subsequent afterlife (see Symbols & Motifs section). Thus, the “news” or new information she receives comes from her daily meditations on human mortality and eternal life. A recluse by choice, she has no interest in the newspapers and events of her own world; she is entirely focused on the heavenly world to come.
Similarly, in the second stanza, Dickinson establishes how she rarely sees other sights or “shows” (Line 4), just as she does not follow the news. She has no interest in the theatrical “shows” and the popular entertainments of her society. The show she wishes to watch is the gradual flow of time until her life’s conclusion. She states, “The Only Shows I see—/ Tomorrow and Today—Perchance Eternity” (Lines 4-6). This disordered representation of the flow of time, in which the future “tomorrow” precedes the present “today,” reveals how, for Dickinson, the progression of time has become confused.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
There is no Frigate like a Book
There is no Frigate like a Book
Emily Dickinson