Emily Dickinson

That I Did Always Love

poem 549

That I Did Always Love - meaning Summary

Love as Existential Proof

The speaker insists to a beloved that her love is both proven and perpetual. She claims that only by loving did she truly live, and that love itself is identical with life and therefore implies immortality. When the addressee doubts this, the speaker offers no abstract argument but points to "Calvary," invoking sacrifice and Christian redemption as the ultimate testimony. The poem frames love as existential proof and spiritual fact rather than mere feeling, collapsing personal devotion into a claim about life, death, and lasting meaning.

Read Complete Analyses

That I did always love I bring thee Proof That till I loved I never lived Enough That I shall love alway I argue thee That love is life And life hath Immortality This dost thou doubt Sweet Then have I Nothing to show But Calvary

default user
PoetryVerse just now

Feel free to be first to leave comment.

8/2200 - 0