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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The appearance of Jesus Christ occurs in the opening stanza: “The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’ / And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before?’” (Lines 3-4). The speaker capitalizes He, and the capital pronoun, along with the context, indicates that “He” (Line 3) is Jesus Christ. One interpretation presents Christ as a symbol of grandiosity. The person in pain connects their pain to the hurt Christ suffered on the crucifix. Though the person in pain is an ordinary person, and their pain isn’t because they’re sacrificing themselves for the redemption of humanity, the intensity of their pain makes them feel like they’ve become an exceptional, godlike figure. The pain minimizes their modesty, and the person, alienated from their typical human status, puts themselves on the same level as a martyred god. The identification with Christ brings the pain into the present. As the person associates with Christ, His pain (the crucifixion) didn’t occur on April 3, AD 33 but in the present, when the person first felt their “great pain” (Line 1).
A more positive interpretation links Christ to a symbol of comfort. The person in pain thinks of Christ and realizes that they’re not the only one to experience torment.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
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A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
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Because I Could Not Stop for Death
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"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
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"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
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I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
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If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
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I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
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Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
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Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson