When you have done, pray tell me, 5.
In this poem, Emily Dickinson is expressing her way of recovering after someone or something she loved is no longer around. She divides the poem into two perspectives: those of her heart and of her mind. She speaks to her heart about forgetting the "warmth he gave" while she claims she will "forget the light". A person's heart is usually characterized as something that feels passion and emotions, therefore directing the loss of his warmth to her heart, instead of her mind, which is most commonly associated with the intellectual side of a relationship. The "light" she speaks of could be interpreted as the visual image of this lost person or thing, and also as the intellectual attachment to someone. In the last stanza of the poem, Emily is addressing her heart, "asking" it to let her know when it is successful in getting over the warmth, or physical closeness, of the loved one. This implies that the only way to move on is for the heart to forget first, leaving no emotional strings attached, so the mind will then follow. In this poem, it seems Emily feels that the heart is stronger than the mind, in the sense that the heart will grasp fond memories and emotions, making it harder for the mind to forget. If the heart does not move on, the mind is incapable of doing so completely. .
This poem contains personification. Speaking to her heart if as it were another person, Emily tells her heart to perform a human action, in "forgetting the warmth he gave," and "When you have done, pray tell me,". It does not include any similes or metaphors, but does convey imagery in the form of a mental picture of Emily and her heart working together to recover from the loss, "Heart, we will forget him!".
