A Darting Fear a Pomp a Tear

A Darting Fear a Pomp a Tear - context Summary

Composed 1859, Published 1890

Written in 1859 and first published in 1890, this brief lyric registers the shock of waking to altered expectation. The speaker moves from fear and pomp to a tearful, startled awareness that what was hoped for has been transformed by an unfamiliar dawn. The poem situates itself in Dickinson’s recurrent preoccupations with loss, the fleetingness of joy, and sudden, inward realization. No specific occasion is recorded; the piece functions as an intimate psychological snapshot rather than a narrative account.