Symbol Analysis

If darkness is a metaphor for the uncertain, then our sight is a metaphor for how we react to this uncertainty. At the beginning of the poem, Dickinson asserts that we can get used to uncertainty the same way that our eyes adjust to darkness.

That’s pretty hopeful, right?

In line 7, our vision “fits” to the dark and allows us to see beyond it, and line 14 sees our eyes adjust in a more permanent way to the presence of uncertainty.