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Emily Dickinson's "If I can stop one heart from breaking" · The Daily Poem

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Monday, July 27, 2026.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by Emily Dickinson.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's called, If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'll read it once, offer a few comments, and then read it one more time.
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  SPEAKER_00: If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.
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  SPEAKER_00: If I can ease one life the aching,
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  SPEAKER_00: This Dickinson
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  SPEAKER_00: poem doesn't get as much press as some of her other more famous works.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not quite as sharp and witty as some.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not as long or involved as others,
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  SPEAKER_00: but it's sincere,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's earnest,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's Prophetic,
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  SPEAKER_00: perhaps,
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  SPEAKER_00: or maybe even ironic,
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  SPEAKER_00: difficult to say whether Dickinson ever believed
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  SPEAKER_00: that her art could accomplish what she talks about in this poem,
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  SPEAKER_00: especially because she wrote it largely for herself and kept it from the world
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  SPEAKER_00: during her lifetime.
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  SPEAKER_00: But there are certainly a great number of people who have found comfort or at least
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  SPEAKER_00: a sympathetic voice in her poetry.
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  SPEAKER_00: But my favorite part about this poem is the clever detail she includes in the rhyme scheme.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is really an A-B rhythm,
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  SPEAKER_00: breaking, aching, and then we have vain and pain and again and vain.
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  SPEAKER_00: But then we have,
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  SPEAKER_00: sticking out like a sore thumb,
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  SPEAKER_00: one C sound, or one third rhyming sound, unrhymed sound, robin.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the robin is the one life, small and ultimately insignificant.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not even a human life.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's just one tender thing that can't quite help itself and that she aspires
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  SPEAKER_00: to do something good and meaningful for.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that one thing can't help.
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  SPEAKER_00: Stands out so starkly because she has chosen that word,
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  SPEAKER_00: that one life, to be the outstanding unrhymed sound.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you're not paying attention, if you're not watching If I can stop one heart from breaking,
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  SPEAKER_00: I shall not live in vain.
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  SPEAKER_00: If I can ease one life the aching,
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  SPEAKER_00: or cool one pain,
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  SPEAKER_00: or help one fainting robin unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.
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  SPEAKER_00: This has been The Daily Poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back tomorrow with a subscriber poem, and then here on the main channel on Wednesday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Find us at dailypoempod.substack.com to listen to past episodes,
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  SPEAKER_00: or to leave your own thoughts and comments about each day's poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: For all of us at Goldberry Studios, I'm Sean Johnson wishing you happy reading.