Emily Dickinson

Beauty is not caused,

Philosophical claim

Not 'created' or 'produced'—beauty exists independently of cause and effect. This is metaphysics, not aesthetics.

BEAUTY is not caused,
It is.
Chase it and it ceases.

Paradox structure

The logic reverses: pursuing beauty destroys it, ignoring it preserves it. Classic Dickinson paradox—truth found in contradiction.

Chase it not and it abides.

Impossible task

'Overtake' means to catch up to and pass. She's asking: can you move faster than wind? The question sets up the obvious answer.

Overtake the creases
In the meadow when
The Wind

Wind personified

Wind becomes masculine ('his fingers'), turning abstract motion into sensual touch. The meadow is touched, not just moved.

Runs his fingers thro' it?

Divine enforcement

'Deity' guarantees failure—not as punishment but as natural law. God maintains beauty's uncatchability.

Deity will see to it
That you never do it.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Refrain as Argument

The entire poem repeats itself—lines 1-10 are identical to lines 11-20. This isn't carelessness; it's rhetorical structure. Dickinson states her thesis twice because the idea itself demonstrates the point: beauty exists through repetition and recurrence, not through novelty or pursuit.

The refrain functions like a philosophical proof. First statement: here's the claim. Second statement: the claim still holds. The poem is what it describes—something that abides rather than progresses, that exists rather than develops. By refusing to move forward, the poem enacts its own argument about beauty's static, eternal nature.

This doubling also mirrors the paradox at the poem's heart. Chase beauty and it vanishes; stop chasing and it remains. Read the poem once and you might miss it; read it twice (because Dickinson forces you to) and you notice what persists. The form teaches you how to see beauty: through patient attention, not aggressive pursuit.

The Wind Metaphor

The meadow image does specific philosophical work. Wind moving through grass creates visible patterns—waves, creases, rippling lines. But these patterns are inseparable from motion. The moment you try to 'overtake' them, to pin them down, they're already gone. The crease exists only while the wind moves.

Dickinson uses 'thro'' (through) instead of 'across' or 'over.' The wind penetrates the meadow, moves within it. The 'fingers' make this intimate—not wind battering grass but wind touching it. Beauty here is relational: it happens between wind and meadow, motion and matter, not in either alone.

The question 'Overtake the creases / In the meadow when / The Wind / Runs his fingers thro' it?' is grammatically unfinished. Can you overtake them? The sentence breaks off because the answer is obvious. 'Deity will see to it / That you never do it' isn't threat—it's description of how beauty works. God doesn't punish you for chasing beauty; God simply maintains the laws that make beauty unchase-able. It's physics, not morality.