We Grow Accustomed to the Dark

“We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” is a free verse poem by American poet Emily Dickinson. It was written in approximately 1862, though it was not published until decades after her death in 1935. The poem compares literal, visual darkness to the internal darkness and suffering of hardship and loss. The speaker of the poem uses an extended metaphor to explore themes of personal resilience, courage, and managing mental illness, detailing the journey of someone facing hardship and gradually overcoming it. While not one of Dickinson’s most famous poems, it demonstrates many of her poetry’s characteristic features: the idiosyncratic usage of em-dashes and capitalization, the simple and arresting language and imagery, and the preoccupation with exploring mental and psychological states.

Poet Biography

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet. Though isolated and underrepresented during her lifetime, she has become one of the most prominently canonized poets in American literature.

Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10th, 1830, to a lawyer father, Edward Dickinson, and his wife Emily. Emily had two siblings: a brother named William Austin and a sister, Lavinia. As a child and adolescent, she attended Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Dickinson studied intensively at school and became very academically proficient. She then returned to her family’s home and remained there for the rest of her life.

By the 1850s, Dickinson had become increasingly secluded, gradually withdrawing from social life. It is believed by some scholars that she suffered from mental illnesses such as depression and agoraphobia, which led her to stay at home and conduct most of her personal relationships through written correspondence. She never married, though some scholars have speculated that she may have been involved with Susan, the wife of her brother Austin. The relationship between Dickinson and Susan has been explored through biopic representations of Dickinson’s life in film and TV. She also had a close friendship with a man named Benjamin Franklin Newton, and with her younger sister Lavinia. These relationships shaped her as a poet and informed much of her work.

Across her life, Dickinson wrote more than 1700 poems, many of which she assembled into small handsewn chapbooks for her own use. During her lifetime, only 10 of these poems were published. The majority of her work was unearthed by her sister after her death. Lavinia turned to a family friend, Mabel Loomis Todd, for help with the publication; however, Todd was at the time having an affair with the married Austin, which created complications for the family. Todd made several edits adhering to the poetic conventions of the day, removing some of Dickinson’s trademark poetic and visual style.

It was not until their re-release in the late 20th century that Dickinson’s poems were published entirely unedited, restored back to their original forms. Dickinson’s poems extensively use dashes and non-standard capitalization to draw attention to certain ideas. They favor slant rhymes over the more popular perfect rhymes of her time and vary in form and meter; her work reads like a predecessor of more contemporary free-verse poetry. Dickinson’s poetry often circles around core themes of the natural world, death and mortality, private emotion, and religious reflections.

Today, Emily Dickinson is considered a cornerstone of the American literary canon and her work is widely studied and anthologized worldwide. Her poems have inspired other works of art, such as the album Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson by jazz composer Jane Ira Bloom. Dickinson’s life has also been adapted into the films A Quiet Passion (2016) and Wild Nights with Emily (2018), as well as the TV series Dickinson (2019).

Poem Text

We grow accustomed to the Dark—

When Light is put away—

As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp

To witness her Goodbye—

A Moment—We uncertain step

For newness of the night—

Then—fit our Vision to the Dark—

And meet the Road—erect—

And so of larger—Darknesses—

Those Evenings of the Brain—

When not a Moon disclose a sign—

Or Star—come out—within—

The Bravest—grope a little—

And sometimes hit a Tree

Directly in the Forehead—

But as they learn to see—

Either the Darkness alters—

Or something in the sight

Adjusts itself to Midnight—

And Life steps almost straight.

Dickinson, Emily. “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark.” 1935. The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The speaker explores the way one can get used to darkness when the light disappears or is taken away, such as a neighbor putting a lamp away after saying goodbye. It takes a moment for the speaker to adjust to this new darkness, but soon they adjust to their surroundings and manage to stand tall in spite of them. This experience is just as true in the larger darknesses of life, when the mind is foggy and all seems lost. Even the most courageous stumble during this time, even getting hurt along the way. Eventually, however, they can see clearly—either the darkness itself recedes, or the mind learns to see in the dark. From this point forward, the speaker is able to find their way through life.