Michael Donegan

Emily Dickinson’s “I cannot live with you” has a great way of showing how we can truly feel towards someone. When we are honest, the truth about how we feel comes out. This has a lot of meaning in a spiritual sense, we see that lying only brings anger and hate. When we are honest about how we feel towards someone, we see true feelings and honest emotions. This brings people together, or it can bring them apart. In this poem by Emily Dickinson, she shows us her honesty to her partner. Within this honesty, she tells her lover she cannot be with this person any longer. While living with this person, she is living a lie, which is making her life reckless, with no feelings. She needs to get her feelings back by allowing space from her partner; in turn, her emotional well-being will improve. “And were you saved / and I / condemned to be / where you were not / that self / were hell to me” (Lines 41-44). Emily shows us that space is needed for a quality of life.

When we allow ourselves to leave partners, we are allowing our conscience to become clear so we can have a healthy mindset. This is a perfect example of knowing that sometimes it’s best to separate ourselves from people who turn our minds into negative thoughts. “Because you saturate sight / and I had no more eyes / for sordid excellence / as paradise” (Lines 33-36). This shows us that Emily was aware of how a negative mindset could change how someone sees others. Once we come to this void, we need to realize the only way we will see paradise again is to leave what is making our sight become dim. Now I don’t think she means we can’t put effort into something to make it work, as we see how Emily wrote poems, she knew how to fight for what she wanted.

In order to get what we want, we have to put a good amount of effort into what we want. Once we see the amount of work needed to get what we want, this allows us to know what life is all about. When we have the confidence to make decisions for a better tomorrow, this brings a whole different view of life. This is how we see that moving on from certain people and or situations is the best for the time at hand. “So we must meet apart / you there / I / here / with just the door/ajar” (Lines 45-47). Going into this realm of thought can be dangerous if the right choices are not taken seriously. By staying in this same situation, it brings daunting thoughts and a negative attitude. Knowing that leaving is the way to go is scary, but once the scary part is done, that is when life becomes joyful again.

I love how Emily Dickinson knows how to live life at such a young age, especially back then. It’s great to know the same thoughts we have today were the same thoughts that were happening back when Emily was writing poems. Do we live the same way in thought from the words written so long ago, or do we live in thought of the past by knowing the past will teach us how to live a better tomorrow?