A Long, Long Sleep, a Famous Sleep
A Long, Long Sleep, a Famous Sleep - fact Summary
Poems, Third Series (1896)
This short lyric, published in 1896 in Poems, Third Series, treats death as an uninterrupted, almost enviable rest. Dickinson presents the grave as an "independent" shelter where one “basks the centuries away,” highlighting calm finality rather than terror. The poem fits her recurring preoccupations with mortality and immortality, framing death as a passive, dignified cessation of worldly concern. Its compact, declarative lines offer a restrained acceptance of oblivion rather than dramatic lament.
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