Emily Dickinson

If He Dissolve Then There Is Nothing

poem 236

If He Dissolve Then There Is Nothing - meaning Summary

Belief Threatened by Absence

The poem imagines the terrifying possibility that God might cease to exist and lists apocalyptic images—eclipse, darkness, vanished star—to convey that loss. The speaker urgently asks for any sign to prove God remains, proposing modest, tender evidence (a leaking life, a little spaniel) as a plea for reassurance. The tone mixes panic and pleading, focusing on faith’s fragility and the desire for a small, concrete proof of continuance.

Read Complete Analyses

If He dissolve then there is nothing more Eclipse at Midnight It was dark before Sunset at Easter Blindness on the Dawn Faint Star of Bethlehem Gone down! Would but some God inform Him Or it be too late! Say that the pulse just lisps The Chariots wait Say that a little life for His Is leaking red His little Spaniel tell Him! Will He heed?

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