Taking Up the Fair Ideal

Taking Up the Fair Ideal - meaning Summary

Ideal Tested and Transformed

The poem contrasts two responses to discovering flaws in an ideal or beloved: one instinctively rejects and denounces the ideal when it fractures; the other persists in cherishing it, allowing time and mercy to reveal a transformed, healed likeness. Dickinson frames both reactions—censure born of betrayal and patient devotion leading to transfiguration—suggesting moral complexity in how humans handle disappointment and the potential for restoration rather than total repudiation.