Ended, Ere It Begun –
Ended, Ere It Begun – - meaning Summary
Unrealized Possibility and Loss
The poem meditates on an experience halted before it could begin. Dickinson frames a vanished work—its title, preface, and story—as never fully formed. The speaker imagines both personal and shared possession ("mine", "yours"), then accepts denial of that intimacy as an external prohibition, summed in the phrase "interdict of God." The tone is resigned and reflective about loss of potential and forbidden exchange.
Read Complete AnalysesEnded, ere it begun – The Title was scarcely told When the Preface perished from Consciousness The Story, unrevealed – Had it been mine, to print! Had it been yours, to read! That it was not Our privilege The interdict of God –
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