I Haven’t Told My Garden Yet
poem 50
I Haven’t Told My Garden Yet - meaning Summary
Private Announcement of Mortality
The speaker refuses to tell her garden, bees, neighbors, or familiar landscapes about an impending death. She treats mortality as a private, almost shameful secret and fears pity, spectacle, or that the world will mark her absence. The poem expresses Dickinson’s inwardness and desire to control how and whether death is acknowledged by others and by the familiar places she loves.
Read Complete AnalysesI haven’t told my garden yet Lest that should conquer me. I haven’t quite the strength now To break it to the Bee I will not name it in the street For shops would stare at me That one so shy so ignorant Should have the face to die. The hillsides must not know it Where I have rambled so Nor tell the loving forests The day that I shall go Nor lisp it at the table Nor heedless by the way Hint that within the Riddle One will walk today
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