Crisis Is a Hair
poem 889
Crisis Is a Hair - meaning Summary
A Fragile Tipping Point
Dickinson presents crisis as a hair-thin pivot between opposing forces, where the slightest disturbance can decide whether life continues or ceases. The speaker imagines holding the breath as the only response when such a delicate balance arrives, unsure whether the moment means life or death. Small, almost imperceptible causes—a push, an atom, a pause—might jolt the hand that steadies that hair and thus determine whether eternity intrudes into the present. The poem emphasizes precariousness, the outsized effect of tiny events, and human helplessness before sudden, decisive instants.
Read Complete AnalysesCrisis is a Hair Toward which the forces creep Past which forces retrograde If it come in sleep To suspend the Breath Is the most we can Ignorant is it Life or Death Nicely balancing. Let an instant push Or an Atom press Or a Circle hesitate In Circumference It may jolt the Hand That adjusts the Hair That secures Eternity From presenting Here
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