Not All Die Early, Dying Young

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.