"There is a word" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

There is a word[1] Which bears a sword[2] Can pierce an armed man --[3] It hurls its barbed syllables[4] And is mute again --[5] But where it fell[6] The saved will tell[7] On patriotic day,[8] Some epauletted Brother[9] Gave his breath away.[10] Wherever runs the breathless sun --[11] Wherever roams the day --[12] There is its noiseless onset --[13] There is its victory![14] Behold the keenest marksman![15] The most accomplished shot![16] Time's sublimest target[17] Is a soul "forgot!"[18]
Poem 8 [F42] "There is a word" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

Sue received a copy of this poem. As she was used to accusations that it was ages since she had sent Emily a letter, she no doubt will have taken Emily herself to be the 'epauletted Brother' (line 9) slain by the 'barbed syllables' (line 4) of that sword- piercing word 'forgot' (line 18) - and perhaps winced at Emily's assertion that the whole world over there is never anything which wounds the heart so deeply as the noiseless arrow of being forgotten, as she has been forgotten by Sue. In the first stanza Emily imagines life as a battlefield on which 'the saved (= those not forgot) report the death of Emily, killed by forgetfulness. In poem 92 Sue is described as having 'barbs,' and in poem 479 Emily says of her that 'She dealt her pretty words like Blades.'
Top