A Slash of Blue

A Slash of Blue - context Summary

Composed in 1860 Amherst

Written in 1860 and first published posthumously in 1891 in Poems by Emily Dickinson, Second Series, this short lyric exemplifies Dickinson’s Amherst-based attention to natural detail. The poem stages a quick, painterly movement through sky colors—"A slash of Blue," gray, scarlet, purple, gold—suggesting evening sliding into morning. Its spare lines reflect Dickinson’s habit of compressing observation into vivid, jewel-like images drawn from the view and imagination of a poet largely confined to her hometown. The piece is best read as a concentrated moment of domestic, interiorized nature-watching.