A Thought went up my mind today —
~Emily Dickinson
That I have had before —
But did not finish — some way back —
I could not fix the Year —
Nor where it went — nor why it came
The second time to me —
Nor definitely, what it was —
Have I the Art to say —
But somewhere — in my Soul — I know —
I’ve met the Thing before —
It just reminded me — ’twas all —
And came my way no more —
This isn’t the first poem we’ve encountered here that deals with the elusiveness of thought. I love that this is something that seems to preoccupy Dickinson. She’s known for poems about love and God, but my favorites, as a group, are her poems about thinking. I love how she grapples with the nature of thought itself, with its seeming randomness and propensity to appear and disappear on a whim. Good stuff.
In this poem, the thought that eludes her is a character unto itself. It appears, reminds her of its existence, and flits away–it’s a perverse little thing, annoying and teasing. She isn’t able to say when she’s encountered it before, where it came from, why it came, or even what it is. All she can do is record that feeling of vague frustration in poetry.
The Emily Project 