As imperceptibly as Grief

The Summer lapsed away -

Too imperceptible at last

To seem like Perfidy -

A Quietness distilled

As Twilight long begun,

Or Nature spending with herself

Sequestered Afternoon -

The Dusk drew earlier in -

The Morning foreign shone -

A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,

As Guest, that would be gone -

And thus, without a Wing

Or service of a Keel

Our Summer made her light escape

Into the Beautiful.

 

In this poem, Emily watches summer turning to autumn and reflects on summer’s departure, attempting to explain the circumstances that accompanied that departure. Summer has gone. By describing summer’s leaving as an act of lapsing, she implies that it slowly went and quite smoothly. Actually, it was so smooth and gradual that its final departure was undetectable in the same way that grief’s subsiding is hardly noticeable. 

 

It seems that a special silence surrounded her after summer was over. The twilight held that “quietness distilled” as if it deliberately intended to wring her emotions as would a strong, intoxicating drink. Mother Nature may also need to spend all afternoon contemplating the differences that the departure of summer will have for her. 

 

Since summer is gone, nighttime comes sooner; with the arrival of dusk at an earlier hour, she notes the changes are affecting her life. Morning also appears transformed, taking longer for the sun to appear. These changes are not abrupt, but are “courteous”; still they offer a “harrowing grace” and she feels as if a visitor whom she adored had left her home. She observes that summer has the marvelous ability to fly off “without a Wing,” or it can slowly and smoothly sail away without “service of a Keel.”

 

She then avers that she has no cause for grief. She no longer mourns the loss of summer because she acknowledges that summer leaves behind another beautiful season. Her heart is lifted into beauty after experiencing the pang at losing summer.

 

像忧伤一样难以察觉

夏日悄然远去 - 

太过隐秘 

不像背信弃义 - 

一种宁静溢出

仿佛早已日暮，

或大自然消磨自己 

在幽寂的下午

黄昏早早降临 - 

晨光已然陌生 - 

一种殷勤却恼人的风度，

像意欲离去的，客人 - 

就这样，无需翅翼

或劳烦舟楫

我们的夏日飘然逃逸 

进入美的境地。