My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close Summary
Emily Dickinson

My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close Summary

Line 1:

The poem begins with a powerful statement: The speaker's life has already "closed" two times. Here, the use of the verb "closed" might be interpreted in two ways. One meaning might be "finished or concluded," but another could be "closed on all sides; shut in." Either or both meanings seem appropriate, inasmuch as Dickinson's poetry is often concerned with both the theme of death and the theme of isolation. "Before its close" most likely means "before its conclusion," or before that final closing act of every life—the concrete, physical death of the body.

Lines 2-4:

In these lines, the speaker expresses concern about what the future might hold. The poem's speaker, having already suffered two life "closes," is left to deal with whatever will happen next. "Immortality" is the only capitalized word in the poem which does not fall at the beginning of a line. One might have expected her to... View more of the My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close Summary