When I Hoped, I Recollect
poem 768
When I Hoped, I Recollect - meaning Summary
Memory Maps Emotional States
The poem contrasts remembered emotional states—hope, fear, and despair—each anchored to precise natural images. Hope is recalled with warmth and a west-facing window; fear arrives amid a frozen world and icicles "upon my soul"; despair is imagined as a post-sunset night that even Nature would hesitate to impose. Dickinson links inner feeling to external landscape, showing how memory frames and colors past moods.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen I hoped, I recollect Just the place I stood At a Window facing West Roughest Air was good Not a Sleet could bite me Not a frost could cool Hope it was that kept me warm Not Merino shawl When I feared I recollect Just the Day it was Worlds were lying out to Sun Yet how Nature froze Icicles upon my soul Prickled Blue and Cool Bird went praising everywhere Only Me was still And the Day that I despaired This if I forget Nature will that it be Night After Sun has set Darkness intersect her face And put out her eye Nature hesitate before Memory and I
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