That is solemn we have ended,—
Be it but a play,
Or a glee among the garrets,
Or a holiday,Or a leaving home; or later,
~Emily Dickinson
Parting with a world
We have understood, for better
Still it be unfurled.
Letting go of the familiar isn’t easy. It’s far more comfortable to cling to whatever we have than to move on, reach for something else. I think that’s what Dickinson is getting at here. Our lives are a series of separations, losses, partings, all in preparation or foreshadowing of that one final loss, the one that will change everything forever.
