Lyric Poem · Death & Loss
This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life
1This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life
2I mention it to you,
3When Sunrise through a fissure drop
4The Day must follow too.
5If we demur, its gaping sides
6Disclose as 'twere a Tomb
7Ourself am lying straight wherein
8The Favorite of Doom.
9When it has just contained a Life
10Then, Darling, it will close
11And yet so bolder every Day
12So turbulent it grows
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“This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/this-chasm-sweet-upon-my-life
Quick facts
- Poem
- This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 20 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Death & Loss
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 20 lines · 5 quatrains
- End rhyme
- ABCB in 80% of the stanzas — ballad rhyme — only lines 2 and 4 chime. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- PoetryDBThis Chasm, Sweet, upon my life by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 cd5461bc2b9000c5…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.