Emily Dickinson

A Thought Went Up My Mind To-day

A Thought Went Up My Mind To-day - fact Summary

First Printed in 1935

This short lyric records the speaker’s encounter with a fleeting, familiar idea that returns without explanation. The voice admits inability to place the thought in time or to express it precisely, but recognizes an inner déjà vu: the impression has occurred before and simply reminded her before fading. The poem’s restraint and plain diction foreground uncertainty and the limits of language when memory is vague. Note: the poem was not published during Dickinson’s life and first appeared posthumously in 1935 in The Poems of Emily Dickinson.

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A thought went up my mind to-day That I have had before, But did not finish,–some way back, I could not fix the year, Nor where it went, nor why it came The second time to me, Nor definitely what it was, Have I the art to say. But somewhere in my soul, I know I’ve met the thing before; It just reminded me–‘t was all– And came my way no more.

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