The poem begins with a rather vague proclamation: the speaker says that they "cautious"—or carefully, tentatively—"scanned" their "little life." In other words, they slowly examined their humble, insignificant life.
The caesura created by the comma after "cautious" immediately slows the reader down, evoking the very tentativeness implied by the word "cautious." The word "scanned" can then be read in two different ways:
- Most obviously, it means that the speaker examined or looked closely at their "life." In other words, they're taking stock of their life, sifting through it for... well, it's not clear yet!
- But "scanned" has a secondary meaning as well. In poetry, scansion is the process by which one determines a poem's meter. So when the speaker says that they "scanned" their life, it's also possible that they're making a pun. They aren't just looking closely at their life; they're turning it into poetry.
Speaking of meter, this first line of the poem is in iambic tetrameter. This means that the line is made up of iambs—poetic feet consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). Tetrameter means there are four of these iambs per line: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM. Scanned, the first line looks like this:
I cau- | tious, scanned | my lit- | tle life—
It's also possible to read that first foot as a spondee, with two stressed beats in a row ("I cau-"). Either way, this meter gives the opening line a strong sing-song rhythm that pulls the reader into the poem.
Note, too, how the /l/ alliteration of "little life" creates some gentle music and emphasis. This emphasis subtly contradicts the speaker's humble assessment of their life; they're saying it's "little," or insignificant, yet the alliteration—and the fact that they think it's worth "scanning" in the first place—suggest otherwise!
Note that this first line, like many lines in this poem, ends in a dash. Dickinson's poetry is famous for such dashes. Here, as is often the case, the dash suggests a sense of hesitancy (or "caution") as the speaker tries to articulate what exactly they were "scann[ing]" their "life" for.
The dash also controls the poem's pacing. Like any punctuation mark, a dash slows the reader down and directs them on how to proceed. But unlike other forms of punctuation, a dash has a certain slipperiness to it. Here, the dash might suggest that this thought is breaking off and giving way to another, or it might suggest that the speaker will go on to elaborate on this thought in the following line. The only way to know for sure is to keep reading!