Love Is That Later Thing Than Death
Love Is That Later Thing Than Death - meaning Summary
Love Precedes and Outlives
Dickinson presents love as paradoxically both "later than Death" and more foundational than life. The speaker sketches a sequence: death first administers pain, then transfers the beloved to God, and love at once affirms and takes over from death. A protective, though lesser, guard remains to watch the beloved in eternity. The poem treats love as enduring, consecrating, and ultimately sustained by divine custody beyond mortal suffering.
Read Complete AnalysesLove is that later Thing than Death More previous than Life Confirms it at its entrance And Usurps it of itself Tastes Death the first to hand the sting The Second to its friend Disarms the little interval Deposits Him with God Then hovers an inferior Guard Lest this Beloved Charge Need once in an Eternity A smaller than the Large
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