My life closed twice before its close--
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
The ending lines are of epic proportions! Such a profound poem of sorrow and bereavement composed in such simple words. Incredible!
I agree Sagnik.... I would say profound is the exact word. Miss Emily's poetry has been a life-long companion for me and I have never found another poet so intricately able to describe bereavement so very well. I assume the 'life twice lost' refers to the death of her parents, though I know that several of her friends passed away early on also.
.............parting is so much like the door closing on life ★ an extraordinary write
I love poetry that is so ambiguous. Is she talking about bereavement? Or is she writing about her two near-death experiences? Having personally survived two near-death experiences, I'm contemplating that take.
THREE: and rethink of one word, but she uses the word heartbreak as a metaphor. I love to read her poems since she oft uses sarcasm and humor.
TWO: Again, this is foreboding and eerie but she shows a "down to earth" quality in the way that she uses sarcasm and humor. and above all, she had time enough to think
Her poems are so 'dense', and very down to earth the more we read the more it opens. She is waiting for her third death, the third time that her heart will break. It is almost as if she expects this to happen.
Emily was a wonderful poet and she delivered poems that referenced death so precisely.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
John and Sagnik have hit the nail on the head with their comments. When I first read the poem I wondered if she had had two near-death experiences, but it could be indeed that she is referring to the deaths of other loved ones.