He Parts Himself Like Leaves
poem 517
He Parts Himself Like Leaves - meaning Summary
Transience and Uncertain Whereabouts
The poem sketches a tiny, restless presence that detaches and drifts through nature—falling like leaves, perching on flowers, tumbling, then floating like a mote. Day and night raise open questions about its destination and fate, while winter imagery—frost, cabinets, a sepulchre—suggests enclosing, preservation, or death. Dickinson juxtaposes whimsical motion with mysterious finality to probe transience and the uncertainty of where small lives ultimately settle.
Read Complete AnalysesHe parts Himself like Leaves And then He closes up Then stands upon the Bonnet Of Any Buttercup And then He runs against And oversets a Rose And then does Nothing Then away upon a Jib He goes And dangles like a Mote Suspended in the Noon Uncertain to return Below Or settle in the Moon What come of Him at Night The privilege to say Be limited by Ignorance What come of Him That Day The Frost possess the World In Cabinets be shown A Sepulchre of quaintest Floss An Abbey a Cocoon
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