In Emily Dickinson’s poem “She dealt her pretty words like Blades-“ you think back to the old saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” and realize how untrue the saying is. In this poem Dickinson explores how bullying can hurt someone more than ever intended, and that we should all think before we speak.
The poem speaks of a girl who is very quick with her sharp words and “How glittering they shone-“ (1164, l. 2). The first two lines can lead one to think that this girl is probably writing letters to someone and using a broad vocabulary. The next two lines explain that every word that this woman produces breaks nerves and hits the bone of the person hearing, or perhaps reading, these words.
In the next stanza we are told that this woman never meant to hurt anyone with her words. As well, that it was never her place to say those words that may have hurt. These words shown on this girl like “A vulgar grimace in the Flesh” making her ugly to all who saw her (l. 7).
In the last stanza we are told how we should react to such behavior. We are told to brush it off and not let it show that we are hurt, “To Ache is human-not polite-“, and that mortality is as sure as the tears in our eyes (l. 9). The last two lines of the poem, “Mortality’s old Custom-/Just locking up-to Die”, tells us that although it is our instinct to run away and hide from our problems, doing so will only slowly kill us (ll. 11-12). Rather, we should brave the world that may intentionally, or unintentionally, hurt us, and that surviving anything the world throws at us will only make us stronger.
Dickinson, Emily “[She dealt her pretty words like Blades]”. The Norton Introduction To Literature. 10th ed. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 1164. Print
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