Emily Dickinson

Is It Dead Find It

poem 417

Is It Dead Find It - meaning Summary

Uncertainty About Absence

This brief lyric poses questions about absence and whether something gone is truly dead or merely out of perception. The speaker compares human judgment to natural witnesses—the wind and the ground—suggesting that different perspectives offer no definitive answer. The poem also gestures toward homesickness and the limits of testimony: experiences can pass through beings that remain mute about inner states. Overall it emphasizes unknowability and the failure of outward signs to settle inner truth.

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Is it dead Find it Out of sound Out of sight Happy? Which is wiser You, or the Wind? Conscious? Won’t you ask that Of the low Ground? Homesick? Many met it Even through them This Cannot testify Themself as dumb

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