We Grow Accustomed To The Dark

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We Grow Accustomed to the Sadness

“We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” by Emily Dickinson shares a similar theme to her other poems, which is an awareness of death and the darker struggles of life. Dickinson was a reclusive poet, and throughout her life suffered a surplus of tragic events, like the deaths of many family members in one year, and the handicapping physical tolls this trauma caused on her. These themes of struggle, sadness, and death often appear in Dickinson’s work. In “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” Dickinson uses simple punctuation to highlight important tones. She uses dashes at the ends of lines in this poem, which creates the feeling of unfinished thought. She also uses capitalization on unnecessary words. Using this capitalization lets the reader …show more content…

This surface level idea is taking Dickinson’s words in a literal sense. In stanza one Dickinson explains what happens when light is taken away:
We grow accustomed to the Dark -
When Light is put away -
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Good bye - (1-4)
In these lines she is explaining that eventually we are able to handle the darkness, when we’ve been without light for long enough. She is referencing here how our eyes grow accustomed to darkness, and are then able to see. She also gives an example of when one might need to grow accustomed to the dark. However, beyond that there is a deeper meaning. In “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” Dickinson is explaining the process of adjusting to life after a serious and tragic life event, like a trauma or depression. She’s stating that eventually we grow accustomed to the sadness, and start to be able to see light again. In stanzas four and five she writes, The Bravest - grope a little -
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead -
But as they learn to see -

Either the Darkness alters

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