Emily Dickinson

He Fumbles at Your Spirit

He Fumbles at Your Spirit - meaning Summary

Gradual Shock of Feeling

The poem describes a gradual, staged approach to an overwhelming experience delivered by a person or force. Using a musical metaphor, the speaker compares tentative touches that prepare a fragile self to faint hammers that become closer and slower, allowing breath and thought to steady. That slow preparation culminates in a single, devastating strike that exposes or wounds the innermost self.

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He fumbles at your spirit As players at the keys Before they drop full music on; He stuns you by degrees, Prepares your brittle substance For the ethereal blow, By fainter hammers, further heard, Then nearer, then so slow Your breath has time to straighten, Your brain to bubble cool, Deals one imperial thunderbolt That scalps your naked soul.

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