Most of Emily Dickinson’s poems show her loneliness but they also show many motivating moments and even suggest happiness. These poems were deeply subjected to the poets of the 17th century. She loved poetry by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and John Keats. One difference in her poetry was that she had dashes at the end of each line. Although she wrote poetry on a regular basis, her poems were only known publicly after her death in 1886.

I measure every Grief I meet (561)by Emily Dickinson

I measure every Grief I meet

With narrow, probing, Eyes

I wonder if It weighs like Mine

Or has an Easier size.

I wonder if They bore it long

Or did it just begin

I could not tell the Date of Mine

It feels so old a pain

I wonder if it hurts to live

And if They have to try

And whether could They choose between

It would not be to die

I note that Some gone patient long

At length, renew their smile

An imitation of a Light

That has so little Oil

I wonder if when Years have piled

Some Thousands on the Harm

That hurt them early such a lapse

Could give them any Balm

Or would they go on aching still

Through Centuries of Nerve

Enlightened to a larger Pain

In Contrast with the Love

The Grieved are many I am told

There is the various Cause

Death is but one and comes but once

And only nails the eyes

There’s Grief of Want and grief of Cold

A sort they call “Despair”

There’s Banishment from native Eyes

In Sight of Native Air

And though I may not guess the kind

Correctly yet to me

A piercing Comfort it affords

In passing Calvary

To note the fashions of the Cross

And how they’re mostly worn

Still fascinated to presume

That Some are like My Own

I really liked this poem by Emily Dickinson for various reasons. I can easily relate to it because I, too, feel the same as her. I often feel that my problem is the worse than any others. I also like this poem because there is a lesson in it and the speaker changes her mindset at the end. At the beginning, she says that her problem is very deep and nobody else’s grief can be as heavy as hers. However, as the poem continues, she realizes that other people’s problems are very important to them and some people have grieved for a very long time. Sometimes, those grieving may even find their problem reassuring after such a long time. She looks at different types of grief and says that some of these problems might be soothing after a long time. Near the end of the poem, she realizes that even some of these problems are like the ones she is going through. Finally, I liked the way she made the whole poem a metaphor. She is comparing an emotion with a personal possession. I only disliked one thing and that was the old English that she used. I couldn’t understand some words and phrases but I enjoyed reading it nevertheless.

Although I enjoyed this poem, I still have a few questions about it.

What do the last two lines in the eighth paragraph mean?

Why did she decide to use grief and not any other emotion?

What does “grief of cold” mean?

Why are certain words capitalized?

Why is there a dash always at the end of each line?

She also used figurative language, which is described below:

“I wonder if it hurts to live

And if They have to try

And whether could They choose between

It would not be to die”

The second line and last line of this stanza rhyme at the end.

“At length, renew their smile”

Personification: this is because grief cannot smile. The poet has added person-like qualities to the grief.

“Could give them any Balm”

Personification and Metaphor: It is both because the grief can’t give anything because it isn’t physically there but the poet has given it human qualities. It is also a metaphor because Emily Dickinson means that the grief could sooth and comfort them sometimes, when she wrote this line.

“And only nails the eyes”

This line actually means that death can make a person cry but the poet uses nails the eyes instead.

“I measure every Grief I meet”

You cannot meet grief because it only exists mentally not physically and therefore, it is personification.