A Coffin Is a Small Domain

A Coffin Is a Small Domain - meaning Summary

Death Reframed as Enclosure

Dickinson’s poem compresses a paradoxical view of death: the coffin and grave are physically small or confined, yet through spiritual perspective they contain vastness and significance. A coffin can hold a "Citizen of Paradise," and a grave, though restricted in breadth, is imagined as larger than sun, seas, and lands. The final stanza makes the poem personal: the dead person who is given a single faithful friend experiences an infinite, unmeasured circumference, suggesting intimacy, memory, or companionship transforms physical limits into boundless presence.