Dash Happy, Crazy Cappy
This poem is Emily all over. We've got some of her pet themes like the power of the human imagination, as well as imagery plucked from both nature and the home. As usual, she goes crazy with the capitalization, using it to emphasize words where she feels like it. For example, in the first two lines she uses capital p's to emphasize the two major things she's comparing: poetry (a.k.a. "Possibility") and "Prose" (1-2).
Emily is also known for getting crazy with the dashes, and in this poem she's downright dash happy. Nearly every single line has a dash at the end of it. Some lines even have dashes in the middle of them. Take this line for example:
For Occupation – This – (10)
Here, it seems like she separates "This" with dashes to emphasize that this "This" represents all the mind-blowing stuff that's represented by the "Occupation" of being a poet.
Where'd the Dashes Go?
Because Emily uses so many of her trademark dashes in this poem, the places where choose not to use them really stand out. There are only two lines where she pulls this trick:
And for an everlasting Roof (7)
and
The spreading wide my narrow Hands (11)
Notice how both of these lines describe something that's expanding? There's the eternal roof/sky and the tiny hands that are reaching out into the sweet hereafter. By kicking her dash habit for these two lines, Emily allows the lines to expand visibly on the page. Rather than being boxed in by dashes, the lines are allowed reach out into infinity. Whoa, we hope they did some stretches first; that's a pulled muscle waiting to happen.