Emily Dickinson

Above Oblivion’s Tide there is a Pier

Summary


"Above Oblivion's Tide there is a Pier" is a compact poem that imagines a lone refuge rising over the waters of forgetting. Only an unnamed "Few" reach it, and the speaker insists they are not carried there but lift themselves. Fame, personified as armless and offering a single meagre smile, cannot help them. In just a few lines, Dickinson sets the lasting against the fleeting, and asks who truly earns remembrance.

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Above Oblivion’s Tide there is a Pier
And an effaceless “Few” are lifted there—
Nay—lift themselves—Fame has no Arms—
And but one smile—that meagres Balms—

A lone figure on a pier above a dark tide, illustrating Emily Dickinson's poem Above Oblivion's Tide there is a Pier.

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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, known for her slant rhyme, bold dashes and unconventional capitalization. Fittingly, this poem reflects on fame, though most of her nearly 1,800 poems were published only after her death.