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Dickinson's 'I Know That He Exists.' (Emily Dickinson)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 19940101
Author:Rutledge, David

Emily Dickinson's 'I Know That He Exists' begins with a firm declaration of the knowledge of God's existence but deteriorates into desperation and panic at the thought that faith is a hoax. Several words in the poem's first two stanzas allude to life as a game and carry a confident and jovial tone. By the third stanza, however, doubt begins to creep in and disturbing sounds and rhymes coinciding with the mention of death suggest fear. The guarantee of a happy ending at the start is replaced by a malicious tone implying an uncertain fate.

Emily Dickinson's poem #338 begins with a simple, ...

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