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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.
When “This World is not Conclusion” references the discipline of philosophy, it does so using synecdoche, a figure of speech in which a part rhetorically stands in for a larger whole. Here, philosophy represents all academic and scholarly knowledge. While the world “beyond” and its “species” (Line 2) simultaneously “beckon” and “baffle” (Line 5) the mind, seemingly inviting ongoing speculation into its mystery, “Philosophy, don’t know—/ And through a Riddle, at the last—/ Sagacity, must go” (Lines 6-8). Academic study will ultimately never understand this subject because in the end, academics are also human: Eternity “puzzles scholars” (Line 9) just as it confuses everyone else. Thus, “sagacity” or judgement and discernment “must go” in order for a person to reach out to eternity outside the normal structures of logic and intellect. Traditional schools of thought, represented by philosophy, are ultimately inadequate to solve the “riddle” of the world to come.
While defining the various lengths people have gone to and the sufferings they have endured in order to “gain” (Line 10) admission into the world “beyond” (Line 2), Dickinson makes mention of crucifixion. She writes, “To gain it, Men have borne / Contempt of Generations / And Crucifixion” (Lines 10-12).
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson