Emily Dickinson

All forgot for recollecting

ALL forgot for recollecting

paltry One

She capitalizes 'One' like a proper noun—this person isn't paltry to her, the world thinks they are. The irony sits in the grammar.

Just a paltry One.
All forsook for just a stranger's

stranger's New accompanying

The awkward phrasing is deliberate—'accompanying' as a noun makes the relationship itself the thing possessed, not the person.

New accompanying.

Grace of rank

'Grace' appears twice but means social standing, not spiritual favor. She's listing what she gave up: status and money.

Grace of rank and grace of fortune
Less accounted than
An unknown content, possessing,
Estimate who can!
Home effaced, her faces dwindled,

her faces dwindled

'Her' is home personified—the familiar faces of family members literally shrink in importance. Not 'their faces' but home's faces.

Nature altered small—
Sun if shone—or storm if shattered,
Overlooked I all.

timid pebble

She's small, the beloved is an ocean. But notice: she 'dropped' her fate deliberately—this is chosen submission, not accident.

Dropped my fate, a timid pebble
In thy bolder sea,
Ask me, Sweet, if I regret it—
Prove myself of Thee.

Prove myself of Thee

Not 'to Thee' but 'of Thee'—she wants to be made of the beloved's substance, become part of them. Alchemical language.

Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Economics of Love

Dickinson structures this as a cost-benefit analysis. The opening paradox—'forgot for recollecting'—sets up the poem's accounting system: she's lost everything to remember one person. The second stanza itemizes what she traded: grace of rank (social position) and grace of fortune (money/inheritance). Against this, she places an unknown content whose value can't be estimated.

The word content does double work—it's both noun (the thing possessed) and adjective (the state of satisfaction). This ambiguity is the point: she can't separate what she has from how it makes her feel. The rhetorical question 'Estimate who can!' isn't asking for volunteers—it's declaring the impossibility. You can't put a number on this.

CONTEXT In 1850s America, a woman's 'grace of rank and fortune' determined her entire social existence. For an unmarried woman like Dickinson to claim she'd trade these for something inestimable wasn't romantic—it was economically radical. She's describing social suicide as a fair exchange.

What Dickinson Actually Gave Up

The third stanza catalogs the disappeared world: Home effaced (erased, not just left), her faces dwindled (family members shrinking to irrelevance), Nature altered small (the external world reduced). The syntax of 'Sun if shone—or storm if shattered' uses conditional clauses for things that definitely happened—she's saying even certainties became hypotheticals. Weather occurred, but she didn't notice.

The final stanza's timid pebble / bolder sea image inverts the usual power dynamic. She's not claiming equality—she's celebrating the size difference. The verb dropped is active: she chose to let go of her fate. Then comes the dare: 'Ask me, Sweet, if I regret it.' The em-dash before the answer creates suspense she immediately breaks: 'Prove myself of Thee.'

Prove myself of Thee is the poem's hinge. Not 'prove myself to you' (demonstrate worthiness) but 'prove myself of you' (show I'm made from your substance). It's ontological—she wants to verify that she's become part of the beloved's being. The poem isn't about whether the trade was worth it. It's about whether the transformation succeeded.