I think it is a poem that is difficult to assign one meaning to and looking at other people's thoughts on the poem seems to confirm this idea.
However, there are two clear ideas in the poem.
- Time passes and you don't always notice it.
- Grief/ sadness gets easier to deal with and eventually ends.
There is an excellent look at her life and poems: Emily Dickinson's Life and Poems
As Imperceptibly as Grief
As
imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away -
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy -
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon -
The Dusk drew earlier in -
The Morning foreign shone -
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest who would be gone -
And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.
The Summer lapsed away -
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy -
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon -
The Dusk drew earlier in -
The Morning foreign shone -
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest who would be gone -
And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.
By
Emily Dickinson
Now look at my brief video revising the poem: As Imperceptibly As Grief
