Dickinson's A Light exists in Spring
The Heart's Vision
The poem features five quatrains with a somewhat erratic rime scheme: each quatrain follows a fairly regular pattern of ABCB with the second quatrain offering the slant rime, “fields / feels,” and the third quatrain offering no rime at all. The final quatrain again features an irregular pair, “Content / Sacrament.”
First Quatrain: “A Light exists in Spring”
The speaker claims, “A Light exists in Spring,” which is “Not present” at any other time of the year. She says that this light, however, exists “When March is scarcely here,” a fact that would indicate the season is technically still winter, since spring does not begin until the third week of March.
Second Quatrain: “A Color stands abroad”
The speaker then reports that “A Color stands abroad / On Solitary Fields,” and this color is such that science has not been able to identify its nature, but human beings feel it. The speaker is implying that this light, this color, may not be something that is actually visible to the human eye, as a rainbow or the aurora borealis would be, but is something that is sensed by the mind or heart that transcends physical sense.
Third Quatrain: “It waits upon the Lawn”
This otherworldly light/color may be sensed nearby as “upon the Lawn,” but it also appears in trees that are very far away, and even on hillsides far from the speaker’s location. She then asserts that this strange vision “almost speaks to you.” She is drawing out of the reader a response that will be difficult to articulate, because she is finding herself transported by this light to an ineffable location within.
The fact that this light “waits upon the Lawn” and does not merely pass across it implies that the speaker is able to stop time for a short while as she contemplates the nature of this light’s composition.
Fourth Quatrain: “Then as Horizons step”
But unable to stop time for long, she reports that “It passes and we stay,” and its passing resembles leaving a “Horizon” or noticing the sun’s passing overhead at noon. But it leaves without any distinguishing sound, and the speaker seems dumbstruck as she strives to understand her feelings.
Fifth Quatrain: “A quality of loss”
After this certain light/color has passed, there is a palpable “quality of loss.” This loss influences the feelings of the observers as if “Trade had suddenly encroached / Upon a Sacrament.” The loss of this light seems as inappropriate as moneychangers in the temple.
Commentary
The speaker has remained vague about what this light looks like, but she has made it quite clear how it has made her feel. The experience of this light affects her so deeply that she cannot describe its physical appearance but only the strange influence it exerts upon her mind and heart.
Emily Dickinson
|
More in Reading & Literature
Latest Articles