Comment on the poem "Twas Warm€”at first€”like Us."

Dickinson's
poem surprises us on first reading, as we gradually realize that the object described as
"warmat firstlike us" is a corpse.

By making the distinction
between the corpse and "us," Dickinson emphasizes the gulf between life and death. A
corpse is not like us: it is cold, we are warm.

This difference is symbolized
by the repeated description of the coldness of a corpse. Dickinson'semphasizes iciness. The
chill of the corpse is compared to "frost upon a Glass," one chilly image (frost)
superimposed on another chilly image (glass). The forehead is likened to stone. The eye is
congealed like an object is when it becomes cooled. Adding even more stress to the idea of cold,
Dickinson writes:

It crowded Cold to Cold

At this point, the speaker turns from physical description of
coldness to coldness as afor certain kinds of emotion. The corpse is also emotionally cold: it
is "indifferent" and proud. This would seem to personify it, but we know nothing of
itit is always an "it, not a he or a she. We don't know if it is old or young or what the
relationship of it is to the speaker. Finally, cold and heavy, the corpse in its coffin drops
into the grave like "Adamant." Adamant is a rock, but it is also a condition of
digging one's heels in and being stubborn: the corpse is stubbornly no longer living.

The poem is especially startling for the era in which it was written, one in which
there was much sentimental poetry about death. This poem offers no sentimental comfort. Death is
relentlessly cold, and it leaves the speaker cold as well.