18 pages • 36 minutes read
Emily DickinsonWe Grow Accustomed to the Dark
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1935A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Courage and Perseverance
“We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” champions human courage, resilience, and perseverance in times of crisis and hardship. The speaker sets up an image of darkness that never really goes away but acknowledges that people who are faced with this darkness can find their way forward. In the second stanza, the speaker refers to the uncertainty that people feel when faced with unexpected periods of darkness, whether literal or figurative. Through discovery of their own inner strength, they can “meet the Road […] erect” (Line 8); in other words, they can stand tall and face the challenges life brings, as well as the blessings it has to offer.
The third and fourth stanzas take a deeper look at these challenges, particularly those that occur within. During times of personal hardship, or “Evenings of the Brain” (Line 10), people are forced to make their way through life without any external light to guide them. Even the “Bravest” of these people (Line 13) may encounter obstacles and pitfalls, but only because they are moving forward—had they stayed in one place, they would have been safer, yet would not have eventually found their way. Thus, courage and perseverance are necessary to overcome these obstacles, even if the act of moving forward is intimidating and filled with hardships.
As one “learn[s] to see” (Line 16), the path ahead becomes clearer: a direct result of the choices made to continue moving. The poem celebrates those brave enough to push forward through the darkness of life, stating that they will be rewarded with a better future ahead.
Self-Sufficiency and Solitude
While the poem encourages positive traits like resilience and determination, there is also a strong sense that true courage and personal enlightenment must be attained alone. At the start of the poem, the speaker refers to a second, external character: the neighbor holding up a lamp to guide the way. However, this figurative support network is only fleeting, and can only carry the speaker so far. It is the speaker of the poem, rather than the neighbor, who ultimately departs the scene. In other words, the neighbor doesn’t leave the speaker behind; instead, the speaker moves forward on their own personal journey into the dark.
Throughout the poem, the speaker alludes to challenges they face on their path, including accidentally getting whacked in the face with a branch—a metaphor for periods of personal upheaval such as bereavement, job loss, or heartbreak. However, the speaker perseveres and navigates their way through these obstacles, learning to see in the darkness. By the end of the poem, they have adjusted to the realities of the world and found a way to walk “almost straight” (Line 20) without the help of any outside light source or guide.
The implication in the poem is that if the speaker had remained with the neighbor’s warmth and artificial light, they would not have faced all of the challenges they ultimately endured. However, they also would not have discovered their own inner strength and independence, which has allowed them to triumph over the darkness themselves. This suggests that one can only come into their fullest potential by challenging themselves and finding their own path alone.
Depression and Mental Illness
Although Emily Dickinson’s exact mental health struggles are only speculated (as is the degree of autobiographical elements in any poet’s work), the poem certainly contains allusions to the relationship between darkness and internal struggle. In this way, the image of darkness becomes an extended metaphor for the sort of day-to-day struggles people who have mental illness or any other personal issue may face in any time period. Through this lens, the neighbor holding the light can be seen as the external support network who, consciously or unconsciously, aid those with depression to the best of their abilities. However, the poem argues that true healing can only come from within.
This idea is most prevalent in the third stanza, in which the speaker turns their attention from external darkness to “larger — Darknesses — / Those Evenings of the Brain” (Line 9-10). The speaker goes on to state how there is no light from the moon or stars during this time—specifically, those that come out “within” (Line 12). In the fourth stanza, the speaker slowly learns how to find their way, despite setbacks such as being hit in the head; the capitalization of “Forehead” (Line 15) suggests a correlation with the capitalized “Brain” of Line 10, supporting the idea that these hazards are mental rather than physical.
Although the poem is one that celebrates resilience and hope, it also implies that this darkness is eternal. It is not necessarily permanently overcome, but rather grown “accustomed” to (Line 1). This idea is reiterated in the closing stanza when the speaker says “the sight / Adjusts itself to Midnight” (Lines 18-19). Instead of pushing the darkness back, the speaker learns how to manage it and live with it the way those who have mental illness or disability learn how to manage their state of being. The key message of the poem is not that darkness can be defeated—although that possibility is present here as well—but that the darkness can be tamed.
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