If What We Could Were What We Would

If What We Could Were What We Would - meaning Summary

Desire Versus Ability

This short lyric explores the gap between desire and capacity: what we wish for versus what we can actually do. Dickinson suggests that if will and ability coincided, standards would shrink; instead the mismatch exposes language’nd thought as insufficient. The poem treats frustrated wanting and the limits of expression as a fundamental, ironic human condition, framing speech itself as an inadequate response to inner wants.