As Imperceptibly as Grief
poem 1540
As Imperceptibly as Grief - meaning Summary
Summer's Quiet Loss
The poem describes the fading of summer as a quiet, almost unnoticed process that parallels personal grief or loss. Dickinson likens the season’s end to a gentle, internal diminishing—"A Quietness distilled"—that arrives like twilight and a courteous but "harrowing" guest. The shift from bright mornings to earlier dusk suggests emotional estrangement and the inevitability of departure. Ultimately the summer slips away "without a Wing / Or service of a Keel," emphasizing an invisible, irrevocable disappearance that leaves a sense of beauty mixed with sorrow.
Read Complete AnalysesAs imperceptibly as Grief The Summer lapsed away Too imperceptible at last To seem like Perfidy A Quietness distilled As Twilight long begun, Or Nature spending with herself Sequestered Afternoon The Dusk drew earlier in The Morning foreign shone A courteous, yet harrowing Grace, As Guest, that would be gone And thus, without a Wing Or service of a Keel Our Summer made her light escape Into the Beautiful.
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