I cannot live with You— (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Emily Dickinson
- First Published: 1890
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Love or romance, Despair, God, Christianity, Death or dying, Jesus Christ, Life, philosophy of, Life and death, Christ figures or saviors, Resurrection, Blasphemy
This poem's coherence results from the opposition of tensions that arise from Dickinson's dual understanding of life. To live with the beloved is impossible, for “it would be life.” Life is, on the other hand, something eternal, the key to which resides with the church sexton, who keeps the key to the Lord's tabernacle. The cups of human life, however, hold no sacramental wine; the housewife discards them when they break or crack and replaces them with newer ware.
The speaker cannot die with the beloved, for the gaze of “the Other” intrudes; it can be shut neither out...
[The entire page is 503 words long]
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