Emily Dickinson

Did Our Best Moment Last

poem 393

Did Our Best Moment Last - meaning Summary

Fleeting Divine Moments

The poem reflects on brief, intense moments of spiritual or emotional exaltation. Dickinson suggests these "Heavenly Moments" are rare, not permanent, and sometimes arrive to jolt people out of despair or numbness. They feel like a gift from the divine that appears with certainty but then withdraws, leaving the person dazzled and unprepared. The speaker emphasizes both the vitality of such moments and their unsettling aftermath: the soul is returned to ordinary rooms, unfurnished by what the experience revealed, implying longing, loss, and the impossibility of holding onto transcendent states.

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Did Our Best Moment last ‘Twould supersede the Heaven A few and they by Risk procure So this Sort are not given Except as stimulants in Cases of Despair Or Stupor The Reserve These Heavenly Moments are A Grant of the Divine That Certain as it Comes Withdraws and leaves the dazzled Soul In her unfurnished Rooms

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