"Satisfaction -- is the Agent"

By Emily Dickinson
[Analysis]
Satisfaction -- is the Agent [1]
Of Satiety -- [2]
Want -- a quiet Commissary [3]
For Infinity. [4]
To possess, is past the instant [5]
We achieve the Joy -- [6]
Immortality contented [7]
Were Anomaly. [8]
Poem 1036 [F984]
"Satisfaction is the Agent"
Analysis by David Preest
[Poem]
Emily has wondered in other poems such as 801 and 807 whether anticipation and want might not be better than the moment of
possession, which, as in sex, can go past 'the instant we achieve the Joy.' And in this poem Want or lack is even that Commissar who is
entrusted with the task of turning our thoughts to the possibility of possessing the infinity of immortality. To be contented and long for
immortality is an anomaly.
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