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Poems of Emily Dickinson: I Cannot Live With You

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From: Monarch Notes
Date: 19630101
Author:Dickinson, Emily

Dickinson, Emily
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
I Cannot Live With You

This poem, among her longest, may be ranked among the best of her
so-called love poems. Indeed, it comes the nearest to making a credible case
for unrequited love, even though it may have been entirely one-sided. It falls
into three sections, treating respectively life with the love one, death with
him, and resurrection with him. The first three stanzas assert that "life"
with him is out of reach:

. . . over there
Behind the shelf

The sexton keeps the key to,
Putting up
Our life, his porcelain,
Like a cup

Discarded of the housewife,
...

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