Emily Dickinson for the CSET

Dickinson mean the eyes had been wrung dry? The phrase “The eyes around had been wrung dry” fits perfectly into both the structure of rhyme and rhythm of the poem. I cannot fathom why Dickinson wanted to give the reader the sense that the Eyes around were doing the wringing. The other enigmas I have tried to ascribe at least possible meanings to, such as the use of “Blue”, the last onset with the King, and the Windows failing, but for this I have no possible explanation.

Dickinson, like any great poet, was a master craftsman at what she did, creating enigmas and contradictions at will, and just as with any other poet, without direct questions and answers as to the intended meanings of each word, each phrase, each stanza, and the poem as a whole, it is extremely unreasonable to claim to understand what she intended. I have thus tried to give only the possibilities I see and the feelings toward them. The parting feeling I get from the poem, however, tells me that even were direct questions and answers with Dickinson possible, they would only serve to deepen the enigmas and ambiguities inherent in the poem, for therein lies its power.