Each Life Converges to Some Centre
Each Life Converges to Some Centre - meaning Summary
A Distant, Guiding Goal
The poem argues that every person is drawn toward a central aim or ideal, often unacknowledged and seeming too fragile or distant to grasp. Dickinson presents this goal as both desirable and unattainable by mere human daring, something admired with caution and pursued despite improbability. Persistence toward it makes the striving more sure, elevating effort into a kind of slow sanctity. Even if a single life fails to attain that centre, the poem suggests a consoling continuity: eternity offers further opportunity for the endeavor to continue or succeed.
Read Complete AnalysesEach life converges to some centre Expressed or still; Exists in every human nature A goal, Admitted scarcely to itself, it may be, Too fair For credibility’s temerity To dare. Adored with caution, as a brittle heaven, To reach Were hopeless as the rainbow’s raiment To touch, Yet persevered toward, surer for the distance; How high Unto the saints’ slow diligence The sky! Ungained, it may be, by a life’s low venture, But then, Eternity enables the endeavoring Again.
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