‘Twas warm-at first-like Us
Until there crept upon
A Chill-like frost upon a Glass-
Till all the scene-be gone.

 

The Forehead copied Stone-
The Fingers grew too cold
To ache-and like a Skater’s Brook-
The busy eyes-congealed-

 

It straightened-that was all-
It crowded Cold to Cold
It multiplied indifference-
As Pride were all it could-

 

And even when with Cords-
‘Twas lowered, like a Weight-
It made no Signal, nor demurred,
But dropped like Adamant.

 

In the beginning of the poem I thought it was going to about lovers, but when I got to the end it seemed more death related. I didn’t think it was more about death until the last stanza where she said “‘Twas lowered, like a Weight- …. But dropped like Adamant” It gave me an imagery of a person’s coffin being lowered to the ground or a person literally just dropping dead. With this in mind, when I reread the poem, it became a lot more clearer.
The first stanza shows a comparison between a living person and a dying one. “‘Twas warm-at first-like Us” shows that the dying person was once just as warm as it’s suppose to be. Dickinson shows that death doesn’t hit a person, but instead creates an illusion of it creeping up on a person and slowly turning them cold. Dickinson doesn’t seem to directly address the dying body until the 3rd stanza. She calls the body “it” and it feels like she’s indifferent towards the dying person. The poem in its entirety feels cold because all the references she’s making to show the chilling body. “Frost upon a Glass”, “Skater’s Brook”, “Forehead copied Stone” all gave me feelings of a cold touch.
Two things I found standing out to me was the way she capitalized some words and the dashes throughout the poem. Perhaps she wanted to emphasize the important words by capitalizing the first letter. The dashes throughout the poem also seem to slow down the pace of the poem. I feel like they’re important because it makes the poem more slow paced and draws out the imagery more. If the poem didn’t have its dashes, it would seem more hurried and I feel as though it wouldn’t give the reader the same feeling the poem gives with its dashes.