Fame Is the Tine That Scholars Leave

Fame Is the Tine That Scholars Leave - meaning Summary

Fame as a Discarded Tine

Dickinson compresses a meditation on fame and transience into a brief image sequence. She compares fame to a tine—an incidental, leftover prong—scholars leave on names as if marking them while the sun sets. The “Iris not of Occident” suggests a foreign, unfamiliar glory that vanishes as it arrives. The poem argues that reputation is a small, provisional trace rather than a lasting bloom. It emphasizes impermanence and the limited attention of posterity, portraying fame as peripheral, fleeting, and ultimately insubstantial.