We Grow Accustomed to the Dark and Before I Got My Eye Put out by Emily Dickinson
Darkness
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” – Desmond Tutu Quotes. In poetry, night is often used as a symbol for the darker aspects of human existence. In both We Grow Accustomed to the Dark and Before I got my eye put out by Emily Dickinson utilize this metaphor. In We Grow Accustomed to the Dark equates darkness with apprehension, and discusses how people can either overcome or remain and flourish in darkness. In Before I got my eye put out, Dickinson equates darkness with lack of ownership and when in darkness, people tend to reflect. But both poems use darkness as a symbol for something negative.
Dickinson employs vivid imagery, distinct structure, and an inclusive point of view to portray the concern associated with darkness. Dickinson uses the plural to affirm that fear and darkness are things that affect everyone, and that some can chose to overcome their fears and escape the darkness. This is made clear in the second stanza, “A Moment- We uncertain step/ For newness of the night- / Then- fit our Vision to the Dark- /And meet the Road- erect-” (Dickinson 156). Dickinson also allows the reader the same feelings of apprehension as the author by entering the unknown world of darkness together. Darkness is a change one must “grow accustomed to.” Darkness leaves the reader feeling “uncertain” at first, but their uncertainty transitions to bravery as Dickinson’s tone also shifts when our vision becomes “fit to the Dark.” Now adjusted to the surroundings, in life people “meet the Road—erect.” just as they meet challenges of life-prepared. People may “hit a Tree Directly in the Forehead,” but the obstacle may be easily overcome.
Dickinson sets up a binary between the expansive outdoors and the inner life—the domestic life. While the reader can read this poem literally as being a poem from the point of view of