As Willing lid o’er Weary Eye
The Evening on the Day leans
Till of all our Nature’s House
Remains but Balcony
-F936, J1050, sheet 16, 1865
Leave it to Emily Dickinson to make dying seem like repose on a balcony at the end of a long day. There you are, the cares of the day behind you, overlooking the sunset on the horizon, the house crumbling to dust behind you.
As Willing lid o’er Weary Eye
The Evening on the Day leans
It’s concise the way Dickinson conflates the fall of darkness on the day with a dying eye shutting for the last time. The eye-lid of night falls willingly over the weary eye of the day.
The word “Willing” is telling here. Think about how willingly the eye shuts at the end of a very long day of work. You can imagine a death at the end of a long life of work ending just as willingly. It’s the opposite of Dylan Thomas’ “Rage rage rage against the dying of the light.”
Dickinson's has set up the syntax so that the verb "leans" follows from both “Willing lid” and from Evening. The lid is leaning over the eye and the Evening is leaning on day. The use of "on" in the second line, instead of "o'er" gives a sense of resting "on."
The Evening on the Day leans
It's a subtle move, the switch from "o'er" to "on," but "leaning on" gives us the sense of exhaustion, as if the Evening is leaning for support.
Another thing the word “lean” does, once we read the final two lines, is give the idea of leaning over the balcony.
Till of all our Nature’s House
Remains but Balcony
Notice that there is no dash or period at the end of the poem. Though it would be impossible to say whether this was on purpose or not, it's neat how the poem ends without an end-stop, as if the eye of the poet shuts in the midst of looking out beyond the horizon
-/)dam Wade l)eGraff
(We were on our way somewhere else and I said, let's stop by the Met and see a quick show. It turned out
to be fortuitous because the Friedrich show was on its way out, and we would've missed it if we hadn't).
All of us were impressed with it. This one is unassuming, but it was one of my favorites. I think it is
reminiscent of the poem, especially if you imagine her standing on a balcony.
I don't know if this image (There you are, the cares of the day behind you, overlooking the sunset on the horizon, the house crumbling to dust behind you) is what dickinson had in mind, but this is an extremely beautiful image!!
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