As imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away —
Dickinson opens the poem on a somber note, describing the passage of grief as "imperceptible." She then compares this understated shift to the "lapse" of summer. This strikes a unique balance tonally in that the brightness of summer is immediately dampened by the mention of grief. It also sets up the poem's ideas about the inherent bittersweetness of the passage of days and seasons. The mention of grief makes summer's passage seem like a minor tragedy. The reader is immediately led to see the poem as a meditation on what is lost during these transitions.
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, that would be gone —
Here, the speaker is personifying the idea of summer. She is describing summer as a guest in possession of "courtesy" and "grace," clearly distinguishing this figure as someone who she is sad to see depart. The use of the phrase "that would be" makes clear where the poem's ending will lead. Summer's departure is imminent. This quote is important to the main themes of the poem in that it expands on the loss the speaker has been depicting. By making summer into a kind of character within the poem, the speaker is better able to create a sense of disappointment surrounding "her" leaving. As Dickinson often does, she is making a concept more concrete, while simultaneously maintaining an allusive, elliptical style.
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.
The poem ends with a painterly image of summer's end. The speaker refers to "Our Summer" making a "light escape / In the beautiful." This phrase contains a great deal of complexity. On the most literal level, it shows the summer sun fading into the horizon before nightfall, the "escape" beyond the speaker's perception. The world "light" especially augments this impression, seeming to refer to the poem's earlier references to daylight. On the more abstract side, this final image is about the ultimately unseen nature of these transitions. Dickinson describes this as being a passage "into the beautiful," because it is the best language she can use to approximate where this light is going. Due to the fact that these shifts in nature are "imperceptible," she is required to make this figurative leap in order to depict a transition that cannot be represented literally.
