Knows how to forget!-Emily Dickinson

Knows how to forget!
But could It teach it?
Easiest of Arts, they say
When one learn how

Dull Hearts have died
In the Acquisition
Sacrificed for Science
Is common, though, now —

I went to School
But was not wiser
Globe did not teach it
Nor Logarithm Show

"How to forget"!
Say — some — Philosopher!
Ah, to be erudite
Enough to know!

Is it in a Book?
So, I could buy it —
Is it like a Planet?
Telescopes would know —

If it be invention
It must have a Patent.
Rabbi of the Wise Book
Don't you know?

(Laura)

In Dickinson's "Knows How to Forget" there appears to be a hidden theme of death. When a person is trying so hard to forget something, normally the reasoning is because that something has caused some sort of pain in that person's life. A very hard thing to forget is when you lose a loved one and there is no way of knowing the trick to forgetting. In the poem, the speaker questions many different sources about what the knowledge of forgetting is, but there is no answer. When someone is lost, they are lost forever, and forgetting that is nearly impossible. There is no guidance for a person to forget something  has happened, especially not death.

This poem has an extremely strong affect on me because I have been a victim to losing someone that was very dear to me. The hardest thing to do is to forget that they are gone and they are not comeing back. Your life must go on without them, but they will always be a part of you, you will never forget.



(Chelsea)
In her poem, Dickinson questions how someone could possibly forget. In her poem, the speaker asks the question, "how to forget?" to every possible source, but cannot find a proper answer. In my analysis of the poem, I relate the poem with death. Death is nearly impossible to forget. The idea of forgetting something is false hope. No single person could possibly forget, but only put away the event or memory temporarily in their mind. You can only overcome what is meant to be forgotten. Dickinson's speaker questions about how to forget, and helps the reader understand that their is no actual way to forget.

The poem has a strong affect on me, because there is many things that I have wanted to forget and could not possibly place out of my mind. E.D. poem makes me understand a little more that you can never actually force something out of your mind, its forever there. You have to overcome and overtime place further, and further in the back of your mind.