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A Charm Invests A Face by Emily Dickinson

Analysis

"A Charm Invests A Face" refers to Dickinson looking in a mirror with her face covered with a veil. She doesn't want to lift it or her wanted beauty (or spell) might disappear. Some see this as a metaphor for anything which is beautiful in appearance but underneith it is ugly. So we dare not try to look too close.

This is a two stanza poem made up of four lines in each. Like many of Dickinson's writings, she changes up the third line in the stanza. It goes from iambic-triameter in the first and second line to iambic-quatrameter in the fourth and finally back to iambic-triameter to end it.

Johnson number: 421

Poem

A Charm Invests A Face
By 

A charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld.
The lady dare not lift her veil
For fear it be dispelled.

But peers beyond her mesh,
And wishes, and denies,
'Lest interview annul a want
That image satisfies.

Next: A Narrow Fellow in the Grass

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Nationality
American

Literary Movement
19th Century

Subjects
Beauty