Emily Dickinson

Heart not so heavy as mine

HEART not so heavy as mine,
Wending late home,
As it passed my window

Whistled itself a tune

The heart whistles to itself—self-soothing, not performing. Dickinson contrasts this unconscious lightness with her own heavy self-awareness.

Whistled itself a tune,—
A careless snatch, a ballad,
A ditty of the street;
Yet to my irritated ear

Irritated ear

She admits her annoyance at someone else's happiness. The medical term 'anodyne' (painkiller) follows—she's diagnosing her own emotional state.

An anodyne so sweet,

Bobolink

A New England songbird known for rambling, musical calls. Dickinson uses it in 18 poems—her shorthand for natural, unforced joy.

It was as if a bobolink,
Sauntering this way,
Carolled and mused and carolled,
Then bubbled slow away.
It was as if a chirping brook
Upon a toilsome way
Set bleeding feet to minuets

Set bleeding feet to minuets

The formal dance (minuet) contrasts with 'bleeding feet'—pain transformed into grace without conscious effort. Notice 'without the knowing why.'

Without the knowing why.
To-morrow, night will come again,
Weary, perhaps, and sore.

Ah, bugle

The whistler becomes a military bugle—a call to duty or reveille. She's elevated the stranger's casual tune into something ceremonial.

Ah, bugle, by my window,
I pray you stroll once more!
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Eavesdropper's Cure

Dickinson wrote this around 1862, during her most isolated period in Amherst. She rarely left her father's house, but her bedroom window faced the street. This poem is about overhearing—a stranger's whistled tune becomes accidental medicine.

The structure mirrors the experience: stanza one is the event (someone walks past), stanza two is her reaction (irritation turning to relief), stanzas three and four are similes that try to explain why it worked. She doesn't know why the tune helped, so she keeps comparing: 'It was as if... It was as if...' The repetition shows her circling the mystery.

Watch how the poem escalates. The tune starts as a 'careless snatch,' becomes a bobolink's song, then a brook, then finally a 'bugle.' By the end, she's begging this random whistler to return like they're a military regiment. The inflation is partly comic—she's aware of her own desperation.

Bleeding Feet and Minuets

The poem's central image: 'Set bleeding feet to minuets / Without the knowing why.' A minuet is a slow, formal court dance—the opposite of bleeding feet on a toilsome way. The paradox is that the music makes pain graceful unconsciously. The whistler doesn't know they're helping; the listener doesn't know why it helps.

'Anodyne' was a technical medical term in Dickinson's time—any drug that relieved pain, especially opiates. She's calling the tune a painkiller, but also noting it's 'sweet' (pleasant-tasting). The medical precision is typical Dickinson—her father was a lawyer, but she read medical dictionaries.

The final stanza breaks the pattern by addressing the future: 'To-morrow, night will come again.' She knows tonight's relief is temporary. The plea—'I pray you stroll once more'—admits her dependence on this accidental cure. She can't make herself light-hearted, but maybe the stranger will pass by again.