The heart asks pleasure - first by Emily Dickinson

Analysis

"The heart asks pleasure - first" is a short poem written by Emily Dickinson. This poem is about love and progressing from love, to being broken hearted, to saying we never want to be hurt, to then finally wanting to end the suffering by dying.

This poem is written as two stanzas with four lines in each. Dickinson gave the poem an imperfect rhyme in the first stanza for the second and fourth lines while the second stanza has a perfect rhyme for the second and fourth lines. As well, the even numbered lines are shorter than the odd numbered.

Johnson number: 536

Poem

The heart asks pleasure - first
By Emily Dickinson

The heart asks pleasure - first
And then, excuse from pain-
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;

And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.