Emily Dickinson

I cannot be ashamed

Exact repetition

The entire poem repeats verbatim. This isn't a refrain—it's the whole argument stated twice, as if the first time wasn't believed.

I CANNOT be ashamed
Because I cannot see

Paradox of invisibility

Shame requires seeing yourself from outside. If the love is too vast to comprehend, you can't get the distance needed for shame.

The love you offer.

Magnitude as reversal

When something is enormous enough, it flips normal reactions. Modesty (thinking yourself small) becomes impossible when confronting something infinite.

Magnitude
Reverses modesty.
And I cannot be proud
Because a height so high
Involves Alpine

Alpine Requirements

Mountains demand specific equipment and preparation. Pride at this height would require resources she doesn't have—like claiming you climbed Everest in sandals.

Requirements,

Services of snow

Snow does work on mountains—it marks paths, reveals crevasses, makes the climb possible. Pride needs infrastructure she lacks.

And services of snow.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Logic of Overwhelm

Dickinson builds two parallel arguments about emotional impossibility. She cannot be ashamed because the love offered is too large to see—and you need perspective for shame. She cannot be proud because pride at this elevation would require equipment she doesn't possess.

The key word is "Magnitude." When something exceeds your scale of measurement, normal responses break down. Modesty means thinking yourself appropriately small, but modesty requires comparison. If you can't see the edges of what you're comparing yourself to, the calculation fails. It's like trying to feel modest about your height while standing next to infinity.

"Alpine Requirements" shifts the metaphor from vision to mountaineering. High-altitude climbing demands specific gear, acclimatization, support systems—what she calls "services of snow." Snow isn't decorative here; it's functional infrastructure. It shows you where the cornices are, where others have walked, what's solid. Pride would mean claiming achievement at this altitude, but she lacks the equipment that would make the claim legitimate.

CONTEXT This is likely a poem about divine love, though Dickinson never names God. The language of magnitude and heights too high for human response appears throughout her religious poems, where she often positions herself as baffled rather than worshipful.

Why Repeat the Entire Poem?

The complete repetition is unusual even for Dickinson, who loved refrains. This isn't a chorus—it's the whole argument run twice. The effect is insistence, as if the speaker doesn't trust the first statement to hold.

One reading: the first stanza is the claim, the second is the proof by repetition. "I'll say it again because it's still true." Another reading: the repetition enacts the poem's content. Just as she can't see the magnitude clearly enough to respond properly, she can't see the poem clearly enough to know if she's said it right. So she says it again, identically, still uncertain.

The repetition also creates a strange flatness. Most poems build or develop. This one simply restates. It's the emotional equivalent of standing in the same spot, looking at the same overwhelming thing, and reporting the same inability to process it. The form mirrors the paralysis.