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Poem by Emily Dickinson
Read by Annette Daniels Taylor
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The Heart asks Pleasure first
The Heart asks Pleasure first. By Emily Dickinson. The Heart asks Pleasure—first— And then—Excuse from Pain— And then—those little Anodynes
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Date Published: 5/4/2021
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A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘The Heart asks …
In summary, this poem examines what one’s ‘heart’ most desires: pleasure, eally, or first and foremost. But, failing that, the heart will settle for being …
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The Heart asks Pleasure – first by Emily Dickinson
‘The Heart asks Pleasure – first’ by Emily Dickinson describes the different needs of the heart, descending from most to least desirable. The poem begins with …
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‘The Heart Asks Pleasure First’ by Emily Dickinson
Take the first line: ‘The heart asks pleasure first’. It is immediately clear that Emily feels that passion, pleasure, any kind of emotion come …
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The Heart asks Pleasure—first— by Emily Dickinson
Dickinson’s “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” notes the requests of the heart. It explains the simplest desires of a person, to seek pleasure and balance.
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The heart asks pleasure first – Emily Dickinson – Bartleby.com
9. “The heart asks pleasure first.” Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems.
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The heart asks pleasure – first by Emily Dickinson
The heart asks pleasure – first By Emily Dickinson The heart asks pleasure – first And then, excuse from pain- And then, those little anodynes …
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The Heart Asks Pleasure First Poem by Emily Dickinson
The Heart Asks Pleasure First … The will of its Inquisitor, The liberty to die. … Download image of this poem. … This poem was written in 1924.
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The Heart Ask For Pleasure First – Academia.edu
In, “The Heart Ask for Pleasure First,” Emily Dickinson dramatizes the suffering of the human heart. Dickinson coveys her intention concisely, giving power to a …
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(89b) The Heart asks Pleasure – first -, J536, Fr588
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The Heart asks Pleasure first – The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation
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 privilege to die—
A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘The Heart asks Pleasure first’
A critical reading of a classic Dickinson poem by Dr Oliver Tearle
‘The Heart asks Pleasure – first’ is poem number 536 in Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems. Its title was used by the composer Michael Nyman for his soundtrack to the 1993 film The Piano (even if you’re not familiar with Dickinson’s poem or with the film, you may recognise this piece of music). Below is ‘The Heart asks Pleasure first’ (as we may as well call it) along with a short analysis of this enigmatic little poem.
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 –
In summary, this poem examines what one’s ‘heart’ most desires: pleasure, ideally, or first and foremost. But, failing that, the heart will settle for being excused from pain, and to live a life without suffering pain. But, failing that, the heart requests ‘Anodynes’ or painkillers (‘Anodyne’ stemming from the Greek for ‘without pain’) to take the pain away. And if those Anodynes don’t work, then sleep or unconsciousness is desirable.
And, if sleep fails to soothe one’s ills, death is the one remaining thing the heart asks ‘liberty’ to do. The Inquisitor – some religious figure who may call to mind the ultimate Inquisitor, God (or Death) – is the only one who can help us then. Death is the great painkiller. Unfortunately, of course, it kills everything else too.
So much for a summary, or paraphrase, of Dickinson’s meaning. Yet it may not be as straightforward as that. Should ‘first’ – in that first line – be read as preferential or sequential? In other words, is pleasure what the heart most desires (or, if not active pleasure, then at least to be spared pain, or to be cured of pain, etc.), or what it desires first in life?
The sequence seems to be arranged as an order of preferences (I’d rather enjoy life, thank you very much, but if that’s not possible, at least give me a life without actual pain), but it might alternatively be read – given the ambiguity of ‘first’ in ‘The Heart asks Pleasure – first’ – as a chronological list. ‘And then’, note (‘And then … And then … And then … And then …’), not well then, or if not.
In other words, then, we begin life unconcerned by life’s hardships and can enjoy yourselves in the golden age of childhood and youth, and that’s what we most desire – for the pleasure to continue. Then we have a period when life has lost its initial shine and novelty, but at least we can say we have our health, if we’re lucky – so that is what we wish for.
As we grow older, we know that we cannot avoid pain, so we long for something to take it away. Then we just want to forget the world and our troubles, and lose ourselves in sleep. Finally, we know that we cannot escape our failing health and the only way out is ‘to die’.
‘The Heart asks Pleasure first’. First, yes – but ultimately, as with so many Emily Dickinson poems, we are heading for death, and the final words of the poem, ‘to die’. To sleep? In two short quatrains, Emily Dickinson gives us the life of the average person and their essential heart’s desires. It’s a concise piece worthy of Jaques’ ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, or Hamlet’s soliloquy. But perhaps our analysis has missed off something that you’d like to add – what do you think of ‘The Heart asks Pleasure first’?
If you want to own all of Dickinson’s wonderful poetry in a single volume, you can: we recommend the Faber edition of her Complete Poems . You can discover more about her work with our analysis of her poems ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun‘, ‘Because I could not stop for Death’, and ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass‘.
The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem.
Image: Black/white photograph of Emily Dickinson by William C. North (1846/7), Wikimedia Commons.
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A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘The Heart asks Pleasure first’
A critical reading of a classic Dickinson poem by Dr Oliver Tearle
‘The Heart asks Pleasure – first’ is poem number 536 in Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems. Its title was used by the composer Michael Nyman for his soundtrack to the 1993 film The Piano (even if you’re not familiar with Dickinson’s poem or with the film, you may recognise this piece of music). Below is ‘The Heart asks Pleasure first’ (as we may as well call it) along with a short analysis of this enigmatic little poem.
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 –
In summary, this poem examines what one’s ‘heart’ most desires: pleasure, ideally, or first and foremost. But, failing that, the heart will settle for being excused from pain, and to live a life without suffering pain. But, failing that, the heart requests ‘Anodynes’ or painkillers (‘Anodyne’ stemming from the Greek for ‘without pain’) to take the pain away. And if those Anodynes don’t work, then sleep or unconsciousness is desirable.
And, if sleep fails to soothe one’s ills, death is the one remaining thing the heart asks ‘liberty’ to do. The Inquisitor – some religious figure who may call to mind the ultimate Inquisitor, God (or Death) – is the only one who can help us then. Death is the great painkiller. Unfortunately, of course, it kills everything else too.
So much for a summary, or paraphrase, of Dickinson’s meaning. Yet it may not be as straightforward as that. Should ‘first’ – in that first line – be read as preferential or sequential? In other words, is pleasure what the heart most desires (or, if not active pleasure, then at least to be spared pain, or to be cured of pain, etc.), or what it desires first in life?
The sequence seems to be arranged as an order of preferences (I’d rather enjoy life, thank you very much, but if that’s not possible, at least give me a life without actual pain), but it might alternatively be read – given the ambiguity of ‘first’ in ‘The Heart asks Pleasure – first’ – as a chronological list. ‘And then’, note (‘And then … And then … And then … And then …’), not well then, or if not.
In other words, then, we begin life unconcerned by life’s hardships and can enjoy yourselves in the golden age of childhood and youth, and that’s what we most desire – for the pleasure to continue. Then we have a period when life has lost its initial shine and novelty, but at least we can say we have our health, if we’re lucky – so that is what we wish for.
As we grow older, we know that we cannot avoid pain, so we long for something to take it away. Then we just want to forget the world and our troubles, and lose ourselves in sleep. Finally, we know that we cannot escape our failing health and the only way out is ‘to die’.
‘The Heart asks Pleasure first’. First, yes – but ultimately, as with so many Emily Dickinson poems, we are heading for death, and the final words of the poem, ‘to die’. To sleep? In two short quatrains, Emily Dickinson gives us the life of the average person and their essential heart’s desires. It’s a concise piece worthy of Jaques’ ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, or Hamlet’s soliloquy. But perhaps our analysis has missed off something that you’d like to add – what do you think of ‘The Heart asks Pleasure first’?
If you want to own all of Dickinson’s wonderful poetry in a single volume, you can: we recommend the Faber edition of her Complete Poems . You can discover more about her work with our analysis of her poems ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun‘, ‘Because I could not stop for Death’, and ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass‘.
The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem.
Image: Black/white photograph of Emily Dickinson by William C. North (1846/7), Wikimedia Commons.
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Analysis of The Heart asks Pleasure—first—
“The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” first appeared in Emily Dickinson’s Poems (1890). The unadulterated version of the text appears as the 536th poem in Complete Poems (1955) edited by Thomas H. Johnson. This short poem is composed in a simple style. It explores the basic desires of the heart—to seek relief from suffering, pleasure from pain, rest from unrest. In this poem, Dickinson’s tone is instructive and informative as she lists what the heart really wants sequentially and confidently. This poem captures the poet’s preoccupation with death, seclusion, and heartache.
Read the full text of “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” below:
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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 privilege to die—
Summary
Dickinson’s “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” notes the requests of the heart. It explains the simplest desires of a person, to seek pleasure and balance. Firstly, all a person wants is pleasure, to live to the fullest even with the occasional painful events. His heart asks for a life without pain that is filled with everlasting happiness. If that doesn’t happen, the heart wants Anodynes (traditional painkillers) for relief, which will ease the suffering.
In the next stanza, Dickinson says that if the person can’t escape from their hardships, then their heart desires to sleep. At last, if the sequential sufferings don’t come to an end, it seeks permission of conscience, “The will of its Inquisitor,” to die.
Meaning
“The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” is a short but philosophical poem that dwells upon the basic human needs: pleasure, an escape from pain, and death. Though the title of the poem suggests that a person’s heart prioritizes pleasure and joy the most, Dickinson points out that sometimes the pain can be so overwhelming that a cure, escape, or even death would be a better relief. The poet’s views on emotional needs might seem far too simplistic but in a way, she dictates the story of most people in the world. Who does not want pleasure or seek death from everlasting suffering?
Form, Rhyme Scheme, & Meter
“The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” consists of a total of 8 lines, divided into two quatrains. It does not have a regular rhyme scheme. Like other Dickinson’s poems, though it does not contain slant rhymes, readers can find the use of internal rhymings. There is a set metrical pattern in the text. In each stanza, the first, second, and fourth lines are in iambic trimeter, and the third line is in iambic tetrameter. Let’s have a look at the scansion of the poem:
The Heart/ asks Plea/-sure—first— And then/—Ex-cuse/ from Pain— And then/—those lit/-tle A/-no-dynes That dead/-en suf-/fer-ing— And then/—to go/ to sleep— And then/—if it/ should be The will/ of its/ In-qui/-si-tor The pri/-vi-lege/ to die—
Poetic Devices
Dickinson uses poetic devices in order to illustrate all that a human heart needs. The devices used in the poem are as follows:
Anaphora: The speaker begins lines 2-3, and lines 5-6, and lines 7-8 with “And then” and “The,” respectively. In this way, Dickinson lists out the heart’s wants in order of preference and describes the cycle of life.
The speaker begins lines 2-3, and lines 5-6, and lines 7-8 with “And then” and “The,” respectively. In this way, Dickinson lists out the heart’s wants in order of preference and describes the cycle of life. Personification: The poet says, “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—,” by giving human characteristics to the heart. Here, she actually refers to human beings as a whole by referring to a part of their body. Hence, it is a use of synecdoche as well.
The poet says, “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—,” by giving human characteristics to the heart. Here, she actually refers to human beings as a whole by referring to a part of their body. Hence, it is a use of synecdoche as well. Metaphor: In the line “The will of its Inquisitor,” the speaker compares conscience to an inquisitor. Without its due permission, none can decide to die.
In the line “The will of its Inquisitor,” the speaker compares conscience to an inquisitor. Without its due permission, none can decide to die. Enjambment: It occurs in the lines, “And then—those little Anodynes/ That deaden suffering—” and “And then—if it should be/ The will of its Inquisitor.”
It occurs in the lines, “And then—those little Anodynes/ That deaden suffering—” and “And then—if it should be/ The will of its Inquisitor.” Alliteration: This device is used in “That deaden,” “if it,” “its Inquisitor,” etc.
Line-by-Line Analysis & Explanation
Lines 1-4
The Heart asks Pleasure—first— And then—Excuse from Pain— And then—those little Anodynes That deaden suffering—
In the first verse, Emily Dickinson explains what the heart desires the most. Her speaker says that the heart primarily wants to have pleasure, celebrate, and live life to the fullest. The first thing the heart craves is “Pleasure” and not the absence of pain, but an “Excuse from Pain.” These lines set a whimsical yet realistic mood in the poem.
In the second line, the speaker says that the heart wants an “Excuse” from suffering and pain. This does not mean a complete absence of pain, but a break from it, an escape. If an excuse cannot soothe the heart, the speaker asks for traditional painkillers, Anodynes, that would “deaden” (end) the suffering.
In the first four lines, Dickinson personifies the heart, pain, and anodynes by capitalizing their first letters as a way to express the depth of her emotions. Her tone is simplistic, and her voice has a conviction in what she says.
Lines 5-8
And then—to go to sleep— And then—if it should be The will of its Inquisitor The privilege to die—
In the second verse, the speaker says that if the heart cannot get an excuse or anodyne for its ache, it desires to sleep, a temporary escape from all the hardships. However, in the end, the poet says that if sleep fails to cure heartache, the heart desires death or, instead, the liberty to die. In that case, it has to ask its “Inquisitor,” conscience. It can also be a reference to God. For a person who goes through lifelong suffering, death is a kind of “privilege.”
By the term “Inquisitor,” the speaker might be referring to the person she loves. As she has already given her heart to the person, that person becomes the “Inquisitor.” Only he can allow her to die.
Themes
Dickinson’s “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” highlights the themes of the desires of the heart and the cycle of pain and pleasure. As opposed to the title of the poem, Dickinson talks more about pain than pleasure. In any case, her poetic persona seems to have grasped that there can be no life without pain. Thus, instead of saying that the heart desires a life without pain, she says that her heart asks for an excuse, or cure, or an escape from pain. This mirrors the life of an average person who is riddled with hardships in life.
At the end of the poem, the speaker expresses her heart’s desire to die. Death is a very characteristic topic for Emily Dickinson’s poems. The heart knows that suffering is a certainty in life. However, it is so tired that it asks its “Inquisitor” for the liberty to die. She uses the word “will” instead of the term “permission” as if death would be equivalent to the master of her fate.
Historical Context
Emily Dickinson’s poems achieved recognition after her death in 1886. Only seven out of 1,800 of her poems were published before her death. Her poems have short lines, slant rhymes, unique capitalization, and punctuation—a signature to her style. They possess Dickinson’s deep knowledge about life, love, nature, and death. The poem “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” truly captures her genius. It was published in Book I, “Life” of Poems (1890), the first collection of Dickinson’s poetry. The unaltered version of the poem was published as poem number 536 in Complete Poems (1955).
Questions & Answers
What is the poem “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” about? This poem is about the desires of an aching heart. It highlights what a person needs the most, down to the least: pleasure, an escape from pain, Anodynes (painkillers), sleep, and death. What type of poem is “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—”? This piece consists of two quatrains without a specific rhyme scheme. Dickinson uses internal rhymings within the lines. Besides, this poem is composed of iambic trimeter and iambic tetrameter. It is written from the perspective of the poet’s aching heart. What is the theme of “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—”? The theme of the poem orbits around the desires of an aching heart. As opposed to the title, the poem also comments on how pain makes the speaker’s heart weary, so much so that death would feel like a sort of “privilege.” Besides, the cycle of pleasure and pain is another underlying theme of the poem. Whom does Dickinson refer to as the “Inquisitor”? Dickinson refers to her conscience or God as an “Inquisitor.” An inquisitor is one who looks for or inquires into heretical incidents. In the poet’s case, her conscience is the one who would inquire into her state and judge whether her death plea is fit for approval. It can also be a reference to a loved one to whom she has surrendered her heart. In a way, she lives for that person and cannot die without his permission. Which poetic devices are used in “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—”? The poetic devices used in the poem are personification, enjambment, alliteration, anaphora, and metaphor. Dickinson uses these devices to make her thoughts more appealing to readers.
Similar Poems about the Heart
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A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘They shut me up in Prose’
By Dr Oliver Tearle
‘They shut me up in Prose’, whilst not one of Emily Dickinson’s best-known poems – it certainly isn’t up there with ‘I’m Nobody! Who are you?’, ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’, or ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass’ – is nevertheless sometimes anthologised, and occasionally quoted for its suggestive opening line. (And few poets have known how to write a suggestive opening line better than Emily Dickinson.) Before we proceed to an analysis of the poem, here’s the text of ‘They shut me up in Prose’.
They shut me up in Prose —
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet —
Because they liked me ‘still’ —
Still! Could themself have peeped —
And seen my Brain — go round —
They might as wise have lodged a Bird
For Treason — in the Pound —
Himself has but to will
And easy as a Star
Abolish his Captivity —
And laugh — No more have I —
‘They shut me up in Prose’. If prose is male, poetry is female – at least, in the rather reductive and old-fashioned binary that Emily Dickinson certainly would have been aware of, growing up in a Calvinist family in New England in the mid-nineteenth century. The three lines which follow that arresting opening line give a clue to the links between poetry/prose and female/male:
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet —
Because they liked me ‘still’ —
‘Girl’ is the key word here, uneasily ‘rhymed’ with ‘still’ – itself enclosed, if not quite shut up, in those quotation marks.
And one of the triumphs of this poem about the restrictions placed upon young girls growing up in an overwhelmingly patriarchal society is the way in which Dickinson says one thing while using her verse to undermine it: ‘They shut me up in Prose’, she says in verse, with her trademark dashes suggesting quite the opposite of enclosure.
They shut me up in Prose —
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet —
Because they liked me ‘still’ —
‘Prose’ and ‘Closet’ can hardly be called rhymes, and so fail to snap together with the satisfaction of a lock, although they are so near – close, we might say – to providing a full rhyme: Prose/Close. ‘Girl’ and ‘still’, as already noted, refuse to rhyme fully either, opening the poem out neither to the blandness of prose nor the anarchy of free verse. They move assonantly towards each other, but ‘Girl’ refuses to sit still: it wriggles free.
And of course, Dickinson is not simply drawing a link between gender and writing here: she’s saying that female writers face a completely different set of obstacles from those men face.
In her own lifetime, as we’ve observed before, Emily Dickinson was far better known as gardener than as a poet; she barely published any of her work, with much of it only seeing the light of day after her death in 1886. It wasn’t unheard-of for girls to be told that writing was not for them.
Certainly, Dickinson’s own childhood was hardly inspiring: her parents were not artistic, and her strict religious upbringing must have made her feel ‘shut up’, restricted, from the start. And there is deliberate double meaning in that opening line: ‘They shut me up in Prose’ means not only ‘they imprison me in a world of commonplace dullness’ but also ‘they silence me with their prosaic lectures and sermons’.
But there’s no shutting up Emily Dickinson. If they had peeped inside and seen her brain working overtime, and glimpsed the imagination and creativity within, they would have realised that to try to keep her shut up was as futile as shutting up a bird in a pound (for ‘Treason’: itself an absurd idea), because a bird can easily escape a pound by flying off, as easily as a star ‘flying’ free in the night sky.
Flight is key here: as with Keats’s imagination in his ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, the sky’s the limit.
The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. He is the author of, among others, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History and The Great War, The Waste Land and the Modernist Long Poem.
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first by Emily Dickinson
‘The heart asks pleasure first’ by Emily Dickinson depicts the needs of the heart. They are highly changeable and include pleasure and excuse from pain.
‘The Heart asks Pleasure – first’ is a short two stanza piece that is divided into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. These quatrains follow an imperfect rhyme scheme that doesn’t conform to a specific pattern.
The lines are all quite short, therefore making it easy to conclude that they all follow the same metrical pattern. But, this isn’t entirely true. The first, second, and fourth lines of each stanza contain three sets of two beats, known as trimeter. While the third lines of both stanzas are longer. They contain four sets of two beats, known as tetrameter.
Summary
‘The Heart asks Pleasure – first’ by Emily Dickinson describes the different needs of the heart, descending from most to least desirable.
The poem begins with the speaker telling the reader that the first thing a heart wants is pleasure. It is the highest-ranked or most desirable state of being. But, there are other options too if pleasure is not available. Second, the heart would like to have “excuse from pain”. If there can’t be pleasure in one’s life, then at least it can be pain-free. This isn’t always the case though. One’s life might not be painless, but if they can have “little anodynes” or moments of relief from the pain, then that’s enough. They would “deaden suffering” a little.
There are two more levels of happiness/unhappiness in the next stanza. Dickinson’s speaker says that if one’s life is filled with pain, and devoid of anodynes, then they should go to sleep. Last, if this isn’t possible, the sufferer should ask the “Inquisitor” to allow them to die.
Poetic Techniques
Dickinson’s Dashes and Capitalization
Scholars are divided over what this intermittent punctuation could mean. But in this case, the dashes are easily read as moments in which the speaker was overwhelmed or thinking hard before proceeding. The pauses represent a desire to create drama and tension in the text. It is also a way for the reader, speaker, and even Dickinson herself, to gather thoughts together before moving on to the next line.
One should also consider the use of capitalization in these lines. This is another technique that Dickinson is known for, and which causes confusion among students and scholars alike. There is no single definitive reason why Dickinson capitalized on the words she did. Often, the words she chose were the most prominent of the lines, the ones that were the most evocative and meaningful. This appears to be the case in ‘The Heart asks Pleasure – first’ as well.
Other Poetic Techniques
Another technique that Dickinson makes use of is anaphora, or the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines, usually in succession. For example, the phrase “And then” begins four of the eight lines and another three begin with “The”.
Additionally, due in part to the dashes, enjambment plays an important role in the poem. This occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. It forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One has to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence.
Analysis of The Heart asks Pleasure – first
Stanza One
The heart asks pleasure – first And then, excuse from pain- And then, those little anodynes That deaden suffering;
In the first stanza, the speaker begins by utilizing the line that would later become an informal title. This was often the case with Dickinson’s poetry as she left her works untitled. They go by the first line, or by their corresponding number in her collection, Complete Poems. This poem was given the number 536.
The first line tells the reader that the poem is going to be about what the heart wants, and the most important thing it wants is “pleasure”. Before all else, universally, pleasure is the most important. Because the speaker doesn’t explain what kind of pleasure she means, a reader should take it to mean anything they want. It could be pleasure in the company of another, physical or sexual pleasure, or simple pleasures like finishing a day’s work.
The second line contains what the heart likes second best, if one can’t have pleasure, then they want to be far away from pain. It might not be the best outcome, but being without pain is certainly better than having it plague one throughout life.
Dickinson’s progression continues. If pain has to be present in someone’s life, then that person is going to want “those little anodynes” or pain killers. Through this phrase, she is likely not referring to actual pain killers as a contemporary reader would know them, but to a reprieve from the pain itself. As long as it doesn’t occur all the time then that is somewhat of an improvement.
Stanza Two
And then, to go to sleep; And then, if it should be The will of its Inquisitor, The liberty to die.
In the second stanza, Dickinson uses the phrase “And then” two more times. Her list grows, and she continues to descend through the wants of the human body. If someone cannot receive “anodynes” then they are going to want to “go to sleep”. This is then the only way to break the cycle of pain.
Last, she adds that if sleep can’t occur, then the only resort left for this suffering person is to die. Hopefully, it will be the “will” of the “Inquisitor” that this occurs. It is up to this ephemeral being, perhaps God or the embodiment of Death, if someone has “The liberty to die”. By using the word “liberty” Dickinson is relating it to freedom. It is a way to escape the chains of suffering the world has imposed.
Cite This Page
‘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.
It is a relatively short poem, yet it carries a lot of meaning. Take the first line: ‘The heart asks pleasure first’. It is immediately clear that Emily feels that passion, pleasure, any kind of emotion come from the heart, not from the head. love is therefore, in her eyes, not a rational thing. It also implies that her heart is subordinate to something else because she ‘asks’. She is in no position to demand love, affection or pleasure, she has to ask for it. Perhaps Emily is trying to say that even in love, a woman is subordinate to a man and has to beg for love. On the other hand, she could be making a more general point about lovers. One is always pining for love and affection from the other, who is therefore stronger. This interpretation might be more valid when taking the rest of the poem into account.
What the heart asks for becomes increasingly more disturbing. Emily goes from ‘pleasure’ to ‘pain’ to ‘suffering’. Whereas she has asked for the first, the second and third are being done to her. Yet she does not ask for the pain to stop, she asks for an ‘excuse’ or something to ‘deaden’ her suffering. It seems she cannot or will not be angry about her pain but perhaps sees it as her own fault. That might be logical from the perspective of courtly love, where pain had to be overcome in order to be worthy of your lover. Yet here it seems the pain is leading towards the inevitable end of the relationship. Emily’s narrator is being hurt, yet there seems that she is too in love to mind. She would rather be in pain with hr lover, than painless without him.
The ‘Inquisitor’ mentioned by Emily could be interpreted as being her lover. She has completely and utterly given herself over to him and therefore he is the one who can decide her destiny. An inquisitor was part of the inquisition who were meant to eliminate heresy in the name of the Church. This reveals something about the nature of the relationship. Perhaps she feels she is being punished for loving too much or for not being the way people, especially her lover, expected her to be. The line also seems to take the metaphore of ‘giving your heart to someone’ a bit to the extreme since he is ‘its’ Inquisitor, not hers. She has given herself over to him completely and is at his bidding. And yet it is still her wish to die. He does not demand it of her, but she feels that death would be a ‘liberty’ compared to the prison of pain she has been stuck in after the end of her relationship.
The poem clearly states Emily Dickinson’s views on the end of love. She sees it as something unnatural. She emphasizes this by linking love to the ‘heart’. The end of love must therefore also be the end of her heart beating, inevitably leading to death. Other poets often express this through imagery of nature dying, to show how it is not in the nature of man to love and then lose love.
In both stanzas, all lines except the fourth have six syllables whereas the fourth and eighth have eight syllables. Because Emile uses free verse (she doesn’t use consistent rhyming) this rhythmic structure is crucial to knowing how the poem should be read. There is something about those two lines that is important, namely those ‘little anodynes ‘ that sooth her pain and the ‘Inquisitor’, who both causes her pain but also has the power to release her of it.
What do you think of the poem and the way that Dickinson presents love and especially the end of it? Do you have a different Dickinson poem you like?
As a late addition to this post, I’d like to add the beautiful fourth track from The Piano OST, called ‘The Heart Asks Pleasure First’. Alongside this poem, it has been with me for years.
Analysis of The Heart asks Pleasure—first—
“The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” first appeared in Emily Dickinson’s Poems (1890). The unadulterated version of the text appears as the 536th poem in Complete Poems (1955) edited by Thomas H. Johnson. This short poem is composed in a simple style. It explores the basic desires of the heart—to seek relief from suffering, pleasure from pain, rest from unrest. In this poem, Dickinson’s tone is instructive and informative as she lists what the heart really wants sequentially and confidently. This poem captures the poet’s preoccupation with death, seclusion, and heartache.
Read the full text of “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” below:
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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 privilege to die—
Summary
Dickinson’s “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” notes the requests of the heart. It explains the simplest desires of a person, to seek pleasure and balance. Firstly, all a person wants is pleasure, to live to the fullest even with the occasional painful events. His heart asks for a life without pain that is filled with everlasting happiness. If that doesn’t happen, the heart wants Anodynes (traditional painkillers) for relief, which will ease the suffering.
In the next stanza, Dickinson says that if the person can’t escape from their hardships, then their heart desires to sleep. At last, if the sequential sufferings don’t come to an end, it seeks permission of conscience, “The will of its Inquisitor,” to die.
Meaning
“The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” is a short but philosophical poem that dwells upon the basic human needs: pleasure, an escape from pain, and death. Though the title of the poem suggests that a person’s heart prioritizes pleasure and joy the most, Dickinson points out that sometimes the pain can be so overwhelming that a cure, escape, or even death would be a better relief. The poet’s views on emotional needs might seem far too simplistic but in a way, she dictates the story of most people in the world. Who does not want pleasure or seek death from everlasting suffering?
Form, Rhyme Scheme, & Meter
“The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” consists of a total of 8 lines, divided into two quatrains. It does not have a regular rhyme scheme. Like other Dickinson’s poems, though it does not contain slant rhymes, readers can find the use of internal rhymings. There is a set metrical pattern in the text. In each stanza, the first, second, and fourth lines are in iambic trimeter, and the third line is in iambic tetrameter. Let’s have a look at the scansion of the poem:
The Heart/ asks Plea/-sure—first— And then/—Ex-cuse/ from Pain— And then/—those lit/-tle A/-no-dynes That dead/-en suf-/fer-ing— And then/—to go/ to sleep— And then/—if it/ should be The will/ of its/ In-qui/-si-tor The pri/-vi-lege/ to die—
Poetic Devices
Dickinson uses poetic devices in order to illustrate all that a human heart needs. The devices used in the poem are as follows:
Anaphora: The speaker begins lines 2-3, and lines 5-6, and lines 7-8 with “And then” and “The,” respectively. In this way, Dickinson lists out the heart’s wants in order of preference and describes the cycle of life.
The speaker begins lines 2-3, and lines 5-6, and lines 7-8 with “And then” and “The,” respectively. In this way, Dickinson lists out the heart’s wants in order of preference and describes the cycle of life. Personification: The poet says, “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—,” by giving human characteristics to the heart. Here, she actually refers to human beings as a whole by referring to a part of their body. Hence, it is a use of synecdoche as well.
The poet says, “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—,” by giving human characteristics to the heart. Here, she actually refers to human beings as a whole by referring to a part of their body. Hence, it is a use of synecdoche as well. Metaphor: In the line “The will of its Inquisitor,” the speaker compares conscience to an inquisitor. Without its due permission, none can decide to die.
In the line “The will of its Inquisitor,” the speaker compares conscience to an inquisitor. Without its due permission, none can decide to die. Enjambment: It occurs in the lines, “And then—those little Anodynes/ That deaden suffering—” and “And then—if it should be/ The will of its Inquisitor.”
It occurs in the lines, “And then—those little Anodynes/ That deaden suffering—” and “And then—if it should be/ The will of its Inquisitor.” Alliteration: This device is used in “That deaden,” “if it,” “its Inquisitor,” etc.
Line-by-Line Analysis & Explanation
Lines 1-4
The Heart asks Pleasure—first— And then—Excuse from Pain— And then—those little Anodynes That deaden suffering—
In the first verse, Emily Dickinson explains what the heart desires the most. Her speaker says that the heart primarily wants to have pleasure, celebrate, and live life to the fullest. The first thing the heart craves is “Pleasure” and not the absence of pain, but an “Excuse from Pain.” These lines set a whimsical yet realistic mood in the poem.
In the second line, the speaker says that the heart wants an “Excuse” from suffering and pain. This does not mean a complete absence of pain, but a break from it, an escape. If an excuse cannot soothe the heart, the speaker asks for traditional painkillers, Anodynes, that would “deaden” (end) the suffering.
In the first four lines, Dickinson personifies the heart, pain, and anodynes by capitalizing their first letters as a way to express the depth of her emotions. Her tone is simplistic, and her voice has a conviction in what she says.
Lines 5-8
And then—to go to sleep— And then—if it should be The will of its Inquisitor The privilege to die—
In the second verse, the speaker says that if the heart cannot get an excuse or anodyne for its ache, it desires to sleep, a temporary escape from all the hardships. However, in the end, the poet says that if sleep fails to cure heartache, the heart desires death or, instead, the liberty to die. In that case, it has to ask its “Inquisitor,” conscience. It can also be a reference to God. For a person who goes through lifelong suffering, death is a kind of “privilege.”
By the term “Inquisitor,” the speaker might be referring to the person she loves. As she has already given her heart to the person, that person becomes the “Inquisitor.” Only he can allow her to die.
Themes
Dickinson’s “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” highlights the themes of the desires of the heart and the cycle of pain and pleasure. As opposed to the title of the poem, Dickinson talks more about pain than pleasure. In any case, her poetic persona seems to have grasped that there can be no life without pain. Thus, instead of saying that the heart desires a life without pain, she says that her heart asks for an excuse, or cure, or an escape from pain. This mirrors the life of an average person who is riddled with hardships in life.
At the end of the poem, the speaker expresses her heart’s desire to die. Death is a very characteristic topic for Emily Dickinson’s poems. The heart knows that suffering is a certainty in life. However, it is so tired that it asks its “Inquisitor” for the liberty to die. She uses the word “will” instead of the term “permission” as if death would be equivalent to the master of her fate.
Historical Context
Emily Dickinson’s poems achieved recognition after her death in 1886. Only seven out of 1,800 of her poems were published before her death. Her poems have short lines, slant rhymes, unique capitalization, and punctuation—a signature to her style. They possess Dickinson’s deep knowledge about life, love, nature, and death. The poem “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” truly captures her genius. It was published in Book I, “Life” of Poems (1890), the first collection of Dickinson’s poetry. The unaltered version of the poem was published as poem number 536 in Complete Poems (1955).
Questions & Answers
What is the poem “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—” about? This poem is about the desires of an aching heart. It highlights what a person needs the most, down to the least: pleasure, an escape from pain, Anodynes (painkillers), sleep, and death. What type of poem is “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—”? This piece consists of two quatrains without a specific rhyme scheme. Dickinson uses internal rhymings within the lines. Besides, this poem is composed of iambic trimeter and iambic tetrameter. It is written from the perspective of the poet’s aching heart. What is the theme of “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—”? The theme of the poem orbits around the desires of an aching heart. As opposed to the title, the poem also comments on how pain makes the speaker’s heart weary, so much so that death would feel like a sort of “privilege.” Besides, the cycle of pleasure and pain is another underlying theme of the poem. Whom does Dickinson refer to as the “Inquisitor”? Dickinson refers to her conscience or God as an “Inquisitor.” An inquisitor is one who looks for or inquires into heretical incidents. In the poet’s case, her conscience is the one who would inquire into her state and judge whether her death plea is fit for approval. It can also be a reference to a loved one to whom she has surrendered her heart. In a way, she lives for that person and cannot die without his permission. Which poetic devices are used in “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—”? The poetic devices used in the poem are personification, enjambment, alliteration, anaphora, and metaphor. Dickinson uses these devices to make her thoughts more appealing to readers.
Similar Poems about the Heart
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9. “The heart asks pleasure first.” Part One: Life. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems
T HE HEART asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;
And then, to go to sleep; 5
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The Heart Asks Pleasure First Poem 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.
The Heart Ask For Pleasure First
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