Emily Dickinson

She Bore It Till the Simple Veins

poem 144

She Bore It Till the Simple Veins - meaning Summary

Quiet Endurance, Celestial Reward

The poem sketches a humble woman who endures illness or sorrow until visible signs appear. She quietly withdraws from small daily routines and then ceases to bear her burden, joining the saints. The speaker contrasts her former modest village presence with a transformed, exalted afterlife of crowns and courtiers, ending in a whispered, slightly astonished recognition of her shy immortal face.

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She bore it till the simple veins Traced azure on her hand Til pleading, round her quiet eyes The purple Crayons stand. Till Daffodils had come and gone I cannot tell the sum, And then she ceased to bear it And with the Saints sat down. No more her patient figure At twilight soft to meet No more her timid bonnet Upon the village street But Crowns instead, and Courtiers And in the midst so fair, Whose but her shy immortal face Of whom we’re whispering here?

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