If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking (Analysis #2)

 If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

By Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain

This poem surprised me. I read it once, and dismissed it, thinking, “Oh, it’s just another one of her depressing poems.” When I was looking through the book (Poetry Speaks Who I Am) and picking out poems to analyze, I found this poem again. I read it, and immediately scribbled its title down in my outline. How did I MISS this?! I thought. It’s such a simple poem that it’s easy to skim right past it. It’s seven lines long, which is only a bit more than a third of the requirement we have for one poem in English class. How can such a short and simple poem have such deep meaning? It’s because it has such a lovely theme. Just from the title, it’s beautiful. If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking. Very poetic, no? Another thing that I like about the poem is that the rhymes are so natural that I didn’t even realize it was a rhyming poem until I read it a second time. It’s not a very popular rhyme scheme (A-B-A-B-C-B-B), but it definitely works. This lovely poem touches my heart because Emily Dickinson is basically saying that you find true meaning in life by helping others. So, the meaning of life, the universe, and everything is selflessness, not 42? That works for me.

Image © Gabriella Camerotti 2007