"I heard, as if I had no Ear"

By Emily Dickinson
[Analysis]
I heard, as if I had no Ear [1]
Until a Vital Word [2]
Came all the way from Life to me [3]
And then I knew I heard. [4]
I saw, as if my Eye were on [5]
Another, till a Thing [6]
And now I know 'twas Light, because [7]
It fitted them, came in. [8]
I dwelt, as if Myself, were out, [9]
My Body but within [10]
Until a Might detected me [11]
And set my kernel in. [12]
And Spirit turned unto the Dust [13]
"Old Friend, thou knowest me," [14]
And Time went out to tell the News [15]
And met Eternity. [16]
Poem 1039 [F996]
"I heard, as if I had no Ear"
Analysis by David Preest
[Poem]
At a time when Emily was deaf and blind to spiritual things and not properly herself inside her body, she was visited by the Spirit. During
this experience she heard the 'Vital Word' that there is life after death. Her eyes were filled with the 'Light' of immortality, which just 'fitted
them.' Some 'Might' or power set the 'kernel' of the immortality expecting spirit inside her body. The spirit reminded her body that he had
been there before, and Time went out to tell to Eternity the good news that there was another believer in him.
In line 16 'unto' is a variant reading for 'and met.'
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