Emily Dickinson

Tis Good the Looking Back on Grief

poem 660

Tis Good the Looking Back on Grief - meaning Summary

Grief Reduced by Remembrance

The poem considers the effect of revisiting past sorrow. Dickinson suggests that looking back can re-open a painful day yet also reveal how time and ordinary life gradually hide grief. Small, natural actions—symbolized by grass—interfere until the original loss is obscured. She then compares present and past suffering: a large, current woe and a forgotten small sorrow are of the same substance, like different quantities of water.

Read Complete Analyses

‘Tis good the looking back on Grief To re-endure a Day We thought the Mighty Funeral Of All Conceived Joy To recollect how Busy Grass Did meddle one by one Till all the Grief with Summer waved And none could see the stone. And though the Woe you have Today Be larger As the Sea Exceeds its Unremembered Drop They’re Water equally

default user
PoetryVerse just now

Feel free to be first to leave comment.

8/2200 - 0