Not All Die Early, Dying Young
poem 990
Not all die early, dying young Maturity of Fate Is consummated equally In Ages, or a Night A Hoary Boy, I’ve known to drop Whole statured by the side Of Junior of Fourscore ’twas Act Not Period that died.
death
time
lyric poem
austere
Not All Die Early, Dying Young - meaning Summary
Maturity Beyond Years
Dickinson rejects the idea that dying young is defined by age. The poem argues that death completes a personal maturity or fate, which can happen at any chronological moment. Through the striking image of an aged-looking young man and a vigorous eighty-year-old, she shows that ‘‘early’’ or ‘‘late’’ are misreadings; what matters is whether life has reached its consummation. The poem compresses this moral into a brief paradoxical assertion.
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