To disappear enhances— (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Emily Dickinson
- First Published: 1890
- Type of Work: Narrative
- Genres: Poetry, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Sex or sexuality, Immortality, Hope, Death or dying, Loneliness
The Poem
In this twenty-line poem comprising five four-line stanzas, Emily Dickinson deals with the topics that she most frequently addresses in her poetry: death, loneliness, the hope (but never the promise) of immortality. She begins with the observation that the man who runs away, who disappears, is enhanced by his having left, because his memory lingers and perhaps is softened by his absence. He is, in Dickinson’s words, “tinctured for an instant/ With Immortality,” which is Dickinson’s initial hint that the poem will be concerned ultimately with death.
...[The entire page is 1529 words long]
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