FOR each ecstatic instant
~Emily Dickinson
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ecstasy.
For each beloved hour
Sharp pittances of years,
Bitter contested farthings
And coffers heaped with tears.
I find this one perplexing. In the first stanza, the speaker tells us that for every happiness, there must be an equal sorrow, and perhaps this is true. But in the second stanza, she shifts her argument to the extreme. Now she’s arguing that for each happy hour, we pay for it for years in bitterness and tears.
What is she doing here? I really don’t know quite what to make of this one. What do you think?
The Emily Project 