So the Eyes Accost and Sunder

So the Eyes Accost and Sunder - meaning Summary

Gaze That Divides and Leaves

The poem reflects on the way a look can both confront and separate people. Dickinson describes eyes that "accost and sunder," creating a momentary, formal audience in which faces register one another without true engagement. Recognition is brief and distant, like a neighboring horizon: present yet receding. The poem captures social estrangement and the fleeting nature of acquaintance within ordinary encounters.