Rehearsal to Ourselves

Rehearsal to Ourselves - meaning Summary

Pleasure and Self-inflicted Remembrance

Dickinson presents a paradoxical pleasure that resembles violence: a hidden delight becomes "like Murder," intense and controlling. The speaker refuses to abandon the dirk because it preserves the wound; the weapon functions as a ritual reminder of death and loss. The poem explores how memory and private rehearsal of pain can feel necessary and omnipotent, turning self-inflicted or commemorative hurt into a source of identity and consolation.