Emily Dickinson I Cannot Live With You Analysis

In the poem, “I cannot live with you”, by Emily Dickinson, the narrator expresses her love and despair for lover whom she cannot be with. The narrator suffers immensely because of her lover, hence why she cannot be with them in present time or in the afterlife. She is in great agony as living with her lover would be a disgrace to the world and to God. Forcing her to believe that the only way to actually live in this world is to live apart− loving each other from afar. Throughout the poem, Emily Dickinson explicitly conveys her lover to understand how sometimes love is unable to conquer all in this world. Dickinson is able to deliver her message of how ‘love cannot conquer all’, by using figurative language, diction, and syntax. Known as one of the most famous American poets in history, Emily Dickson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830. Dickinson grew up refrained from society, as her father prohibited her from reading anything that differentiated her religious beliefs. Dickinson however, was not blind to world around her and believed that in order to reach your ultimate …show more content…
Dickinson begins by expressing how being with her lover prevents her from reaching her maximum potential in life− pulling her back from who she can become. In the lines, “I cannot live with You-It would be Life” (Poets), Dickinson uses paradox in order to express how she desires to be with her lover, however she cannot be with him because he holds her back from actually living her life. In the next line, “And Life is over there-Behind the Shelf” (Poets), Dickinson uses symbolism in order to illustrate how her true identity is hidden like a book behind the shelf with her lover representing the shelf. Overall, throughout the lines of the first stanza a tone of urgency and despair is present as she reveals the fact that she cannot be with her