E4 My First Well Day Since Many Ill by Emily Dickinson

Send us Fan MailAn immersive reading of Emily Dickinson’s poem ‘My First Well Day Since Many Ill’ about a person going outside after being sick for a long time with an exploration of the themes of summer’s end, the denial of death, and reclusiveness. Poem:My First Well Day Since Many Ill            by Emily DickinsonMy first well Day — since many ill — I asked to go abroad, And take the Sunshine in my hands, And see the things in Pod —  A 'blossom just when I went in To take my Chance with pain — Uncertain if myself, or He, Should prove the strongest One.  The Summer deepened, while we strove — She put some flowers away — And Redder cheeked Ones — in their stead — A fond — illusive way —  To cheat Herself, it seemed she tried — As if before a child To fade — Tomorrow — Rainbows held The Sepulchre, could hide.  She dealt a fashion to the Nut — She tied the Hoods to Seeds — She dropped bright scraps of Tint, about — And left Brazilian Threads  On every shoulder that she met — Then both her Hands of Haze Put up — to hide her parting Grace From our unfitted eyes.  My loss, by sickness — Was it Loss? Or that Ethereal Gain One earns by measuring the Grave — Then — measuring the Sun —References:Hirschhorn, Norbert. “Was it Tuberculosis? Another Glimpse of Emily Dickinson’s Health.” The New England Quarterly (March 1999). 102-118.Blanchard DL. Emily Dickinson's Ophthalmic Consultation With Henry Willard Williams, MD. Arch Ophthalmol. 2012;130(12):1591–1595.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-dickinson