I Shall Know Why, When Time Is Over Analysis

"I Shall Know Why, When Time Is Over" is a poem about how once Emily Dickinson, the author of this poem, dies, God or Jesus or "Christ" as she says, will teach her about life. This will explain everything to her and she will have no questions or anguish any longer. It is a very peaceful and relaxing tone that says you may struggle during life, but once you die, you will have no more severe mental or physical pain. That is just a very nice thing to think about. I want that to happen to me because if you work hard during your life then you will be rewarded with "Christ's" knowledge of life's struggles and tests. To me this would be a very useful key to have during life, but as this poem says, you are not rewarded with this knowledge until after you die and you are in the afterlife. "I shall know why, when time is over,/ And I have ceased to wonder why;/ Christ will explain each separate anguish/ In the fair schoolroom of the sky./ He will tell me what Peter promised,/ And I, for wonder at his woe,/ I shall forget the drop of anguish/ That scalds me now, that scalds me now" (Dickinson). So as we take a look into this poem, we ran see that Emily Dickinson says that she will know why after she has ceased to wonder why when her time is over, or in her death. She says Christ, which I presume is Jesus, will explain each individual time of anguish, or time or severe mental or physical pain while they are in a classroom type environment in the sky. It is said to be known that heaven is in the sky above the clouds, so this classroom would be in the clouds. She tells him to explain Peter's promise of staying with Jesus even with the possible consequence of death. We are all familiar with this story of Jesus being tried in the courthouse and Peter staying outside. Jesus tells Peter he will deny him three time before the crow calls. Peter was just like no way Jesus, not me, you are awesome and I will not deny you. But sure enough, Peter ends up denying Jesus three times and still Jesus forgives him. This story is read all the time at my church and it is a good example of the Lord's mercy on all of us. But Jesus will explain this promise that Peter made to Jesus but did not keep. Then Dickinson will forget about the pain that is "scalding" her now because of the sorrow that Peter felt to Jesus for breaking this promise. I thought this poem was a very nice poem that draws in both emotions that she feels as a human like anguish, and mixing into the afterlife with Jesus. Then on top of that she brings in a very recognizable story from the Bible that only deeper embeds the meaning of "I Shall Know Why When Time Is Over."



Dickinson, Emily. "I Shall Know Why, When Time Is Over." Bartleby.com. 2011. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. .