I Know Lives, I Could Miss
poem 372
I Know Lives, I Could Miss - meaning Summary
Selective Attachment and Scale
Dickinson contrasts two kinds of lives: those she could lose without suffering and rare, small presences whose loss would feel like eternity. She compresses scale to emphasize emotional weight: many lives are easily replaceable, while a few occupy a disproportionate horizon. The poem meditates on selectivity of attachment and the disproportion between numerical insignificance and subjective significance in relationships.
Read Complete AnalysesI know lives, I could miss Without a Misery Others whose instant’s wanting Would be Eternity The last a scanty Number ‘Twould scarcely fill a Two The first a Gnat’s Horizon Could easily outgrow
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