“I measure every Grief I meet” Summary

“I measure every Grief I meet” Themes

• 

  The Nature of Grief

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I measure every Grief I meet”

• Lines 1-4

  I measure every Grief I meet
  With narrow, probing, Eyes —
  I wonder if It weighs like Mine —
  Or has an Easier size.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  I wonder if They bore it long —
  Or did it just begin —
  I could not tell the Date of Mine —
  It feels so old a pain —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  I wonder if it hurts to live —
  And if They have to try —
  And whether — could They choose between—
  It would not be — to die —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  I note that Some — gone patient long —
  At length, renew their smile —
  An imitation of a Light
  That has so little Oil —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  I wonder if when Years have piled —
  Some Thousands — on the Harm —
  That hurt them early — such a lapse
  Could give them any Balm —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  Or would they go on aching still
  Through Centuries of Nerve —
  Enlightened to a larger Pain —
  In Contrast with the Love —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  The Grieved — are many — I am told —
  There is the various Cause —
  Death — is but one — and comes but once —
  And only nails the eyes —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-32

  There's Grief of Want — and Grief of Cold —
  A sort they call "Despair" —
  There's Banishment from native Eyes —
  In sight of Native Air —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-36

  And though I may not guess the kind —
  Correctly — yet to me
  A piercing Comfort it affords
  In passing Calvary —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-40

  To note the fashions — of the Cross —
  And how they're mostly worn —
  Still fascinated to presume
  That Some — are like My Own —

  

  

  

  

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“I measure every Grief I meet” Symbols

• 

  The Cross

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“I measure every Grief I meet” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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“I measure every Grief I meet” 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.

• Probing
• Easier size
• Bore
• Imitation
• Oil
• Lapse
• Balm
• Enlightened
• Banishment
• Native
• Calvary
• Fashions
• Cross
• Worn
• Presume

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I measure every Grief I meet”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“I measure every Grief I meet” Speaker

“I measure every Grief I meet” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “I measure every Grief I meet”

More “I measure every Grief I meet” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — The poem performed with musical accompaniment by Michael Hermiston. 

  • Biography and Poems — A biography of Dickinson and more Dickinson poems from the Poetry Foundation.

  • Poems about Grief — A Poetry Foundation archive of poems about grief and suffering. 

  • Dickinson's Meter — A closer look at Dickinson's unconventional use of meter and its relationship to the hymn tradition.

  • Harvard Collection — Harvard Library's Emily Dickinson collection, which contains Dickinson's original, hardbound manuscripts as well as letters, her herbarium, and the family Bible.

• 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—

  • 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’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!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!