My First Well Day Since Many Ill
poem 574
My First Well Day Since Many Ill - meaning Summary
Recovery Re-sees the World
This poem recounts a first day of health after prolonged illness and the speaker's tentative re-entry into the world. Dickinson describes attempting to take in sunlight and observe summer’s shifting beauty while wrestling with uncertainty about strength and identity. Nature’s small, theatrical gestures—flowers, color, and vanished light—underscore fragility and transience. The closing question reframes illness not simply as loss but as a way to recalibrate perception of life and the grave.
Read Complete AnalysesMy first well Day since many ill I asked to go abroad, And take the Sunshine in my hands, And see the things in Pod A ‘blossom just when I went in To take my Chance with pain Uncertain if myself, or He, Should prove the strongest One. The Summer deepened, while we strove She put some flowers away And Redder cheeked Ones in their stead A fond illusive way To cheat Herself, it seemed she tried As if before a child To fade Tomorrow Rainbows held The Sepulchre, could hide. She dealt a fashion to the Nut She tied the Hoods to Seeds She dropped bright scraps of Tint, about And left Brazilian Threads On every shoulder that she met Then both her Hands of Haze Put up to hide her parting Grace From our unfitted eyes. My loss, by sickness Was it Loss? Or that Ethereal Gain One earns by measuring the Grave Then measuring the Sun
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