Skip to main content

Analysis of "Crumbling is not an instant's Act (1010)" by Emily Dickinson

More about the Poet:  Emily Dickinson



Such a strong first line that makes a reader wonder, "Crumbling is not an instant's Act" where the speaker sets up a curiosity -- what is the physical visual case between crumbling/not crumbling.  The next three lines brings a curt matter of fact attitude:

A fundamental pause
Dilapidation's processes
Are organized Decays --

The process of decay is an orderly manner -- a pause, dilapidation happens, good and organized.  Then the speaker brings this sort of objective view goes back to the self, "'Tis first a Cobweb on the soul."  And as the image of this crumbling soul going down to the most basic electron:

A Cuticle of Dust
A Borer in the Axis
An Elemental Rust -- 
So the soul, this particle, is down to an "elemental" rust is gone.  Is it gone?  If not gone then what happens, "Ruin is formal -- Devil's work / Consecutive and slow --" a continuous decay to something smaller, something minuscule -- a reverse Sisyphean ordeal. 

The last two lines don't make sense to me, "Fail in an instant, no man did / Slipping -- is Crashe's law --"  I looked up "Crashe's law",  but this looks like this law refers to nothing I can see outside this poem.  The bigger question to me is "Fail is an instant, no man did."  I understand the enjambment focusing on no man fails in an instant -- but the direct verb drops down to the next line "Slipping" is a good visual, but doesn't make sense with the sentence.

Slipping down like sisyphus.

Comments