18 pages • 36 minutes read
Emily DickinsonWe Grow Accustomed to the Dark
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1935A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“What Mystery Pervades a Well” by Emily Dickinson (1896)
One of Emily Dickinson’s most beloved poems, this explores her relationship with the natural world and deals with the balance of discovery and the unknown, similar to the dynamic of light and darkness in “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark.”
“There's A Certain Slant Of Light” by Emily Dickinson (1890)
This poem uses the imagery of light and dark to explore similar themes of despair and the transcendence and healing that comes from working through despair, which are a common thread through Dickinson’s work.
“Mad Girl’s Love Song” by Sylvia Plath (1953)
A much later iteration from another famous American female poet, Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” shares similar themes of finding one’s way through an unfamiliar darkness.
Further Literary Resources
“Emily Dickinson: 19th Century Poet in a 21st Century World” by Stephanie Merrigan (2020)
This article explores Dickinson’s pervasive and occasionally surprising impact on the modern artistic community, and how her memory has been kept alive in a crowded literary canon.
“Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickison” compiled by Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith (1998)
This excerpt from a work by Hart and Smith features a compilation of some of the letters exchanged between Emily Dickinson and her sister-in-law, Susan. The exact nature of the relationship between the two women has been the cause of speculation and debate by scholars, with some arguing for a more romantic dynamic between the two women than previously supposed.
“Metaphors of Mental Illness: How Emily Dickinson and Vincent van Gogh Understood and Expressed Their Personal Battles with Depression” by Samantha Moss (2020)
This article explores the portrayal of mental illness and personal struggle in the works of Dickinson and Van Gogh, examining how depression can be managed through an artistic lens.
Listen to Poem
In this video, Tim Gracyk offers a slow and careful reading of Dickinson’s “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark,” placing special emphasis on her use of em-dashes to create the sense of hesitation and uncertainty faced by the poem’s speaker. The video features imagery and text, so viewers can follow along with the reading in real time.
Related Titles
By Emily Dickinson
