Emily Dickinson

Till death is narrow loving

"Till death" is narrow loving;
The scantiest heart extant
Will hold you, till your

Privilege of finiteness

Death as a privilege, not a tragedy. Dickinson inverts the usual logic—being mortal means you get an easy out from love's demands.

Privilege
Of finiteness be spent.
But he whose loss procures you

Loss procures destitution

**Procures** means to obtain or bring about deliberately. The beloved's loss doesn't just happen to you—it actively creates your poverty.

Such destitution that

Too abject for itself

**Abject** = cast down, degraded. Your life becomes so worthless it can't even sustain itself—it needs to copy the dead beloved to continue.

Your life, too abject for itself,
Thenceforward imitate—
Until, resemblance perfect,
Yourself for his pursuit
Delight of nature abdicate,

Abdicate nature's delight

**Abdicate** is what monarchs do—formal renunciation. You give up earthly pleasures to pursue the dead, becoming a kind of living ghost.

Exhibit love somewhat

The massive understatement after describing total self-annihilation. Only this—erasing yourself—counts as **somewhat** showing love.

Exhibit love somewhat.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Two Definitions of Love

The poem gives you two options, framed as a choice between narrow and real love. "Till death" loving is what most people do—affection that lasts until one person dies. Dickinson calls this "narrow" and says even "the scantiest heart" (the stingiest, most minimal love) can manage it. Why? Because death gives you an exit. Your "privilege of finiteness" means you only have to love for a limited time.

The alternative appears in stanza two with "But he whose loss procures you / Such destitution." This is love that doesn't end at death. Instead, the beloved's death makes you so devastated ("such destitution") that you can't continue your own life. You become "too abject for itself"—too degraded and worthless to function independently.

What follows is extreme: you "imitate" the dead person, achieve "resemblance perfect," give up "delight of nature" (earthly pleasures), and pursue them into death. Only this total self-erasure can "exhibit love somewhat." The understatement is devastating—complete self-annihilation is merely somewhat adequate proof of love.

Dickinson's Death-Love Logic

CONTEXT Dickinson wrote obsessively about a "Master" figure in letters and poems, possibly a real person, possibly composite or imagined. Many poems explore love as a form of voluntary suffering or self-abnegation. She never married and lived increasingly reclusive.

This poem's logic is pure Dickinson extremism: if you truly love someone, their death should make you want to die too. Not metaphorically—literally imitate them into non-existence. The word "thenceforward" means from that point on, permanently. Your grief becomes your identity.

"Resemblance perfect" is the goal—you don't just mourn, you become the dead beloved through imitation. "Abdicate" (give up a throne) suggests you're renouncing your own sovereignty, your right to exist as yourself. The pursuit continues beyond death—you're chasing them into whatever comes next.

The poem's repetition (it's the same stanzas twice) might be a printing error in some editions, or Dickinson's deliberate choice to hammer the point home. Either way, the circular structure reinforces the trap: ordinary love is narrow, but real love requires self-destruction. There's no comfortable middle ground in Dickinson's theology of devotion.