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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.
In a poem that explores the complex relationship between the soul and, well, the soul, the opening assertion is oddly reassuring. The soul, we are told, all by itself is a friend. Friendship is at once a powerful and a reassuring symbol. Unlike the haunted speculations of Christian theology that so often posit the soul as some internal entity on loan from the Creator God, the poem suggests that in its purest state a soul without context, a soul unto itself, is a friend, an ally. In fact, the poet suggests the soul is not merely a friend, but an imperial friend. That adjective suggests the soul in its purest state is monarchial, the king among the other lesser energies such as the intellect or the heart.
The first couplet reads like a maxim, a saying, which reassures the concerned, even anxious Christian that the soul that is too often abused and thus the reason for the person ending up in perdition is a friend, a powerful friend. Having a soul, the poem suggests, is akin to having a powerful friend in Court. The soul is not a burden we carry, not an obligation we must tend to, not a fragile and delicate instrument we must be sure not to break.
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
The Only News I Know
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson