please explain "a charm invests a face" by emily dickinson?

Question

i don't quite understand what it has to do with love

Answer 1

I take it this way:

When you're charmed with the face you saw, you tend to remember her/him for the rest of your life. It's a sort of impresssion left in the memory of the beholder.

Answer 2

actually, the poem is about false impressions. the speaker is literally discribing a woman speaking to someone from under the veil of her hat, and daring not to remove it because she fears it adds a certain charm to her face that wouldn't otherwise be there. see below.

A Charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld- [a charm/distraction/adornment can enhance an otherwise imperfect face]
The Lady dare not lift her Veil
For fear it be dispelled-But peers beyond her mesh-
And wishes-and denies-
Lest Interview-annul a want
That Image-satisfies- [so the woman keeps her veil in place, afraid to remove it, because she's afraid if she does, it will ruin any growing interest from her suitor by shattering his image of her.]

Answer 3

A lovely homage to Emily that I feel she would have loved, not only for its sensibilities and content, but because it meant that others were reading her poems and were moved by them (very few indeed were published during her lifetime). Here words are leaves that fill leaves of another sort more akin to the now yellowed paper below. I loved your use of the em dash, so much like Dickinson, though perhaps less frequent and volcanic. And finally, the closing "forever/ Or at least long enough, for us,/ To forget them . . . never -- " points to the riddle of finitude and consciousness that intrigued Dickinson herself, one that is raised anew by a poet -- you -- who has brought her to life this morning. A fine and thoughtful tribute.

Answer 4

One must first understand the poem:

"A charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld.
The lady dare not lift her veil
For fear it be dispelled."

Emily is saying that there is a "mystery" to a partially concealed face that draws us in by our human curiousity, and the "lady" understands this, which is why she knows that she "dare not lift her veil" or the mystery will be replaced by knowledge, and thereby be "dispelled".

"But peers beyond her mesh,
And wishes, and denies,
'Lest interview annul a want
That image satisfies"

She's saying here that the "lady" peers beyond her mesh, or in other words, looks out at the world past her veil, wishing to see it whole, but denying herself that satisfaction, knowing that once she allows full view of her face (a visual 'interview'), it would "annul", or cancel or otherwise satisfy the "want" that an full "image" would satisfy. In other words, she wants to give in to her wishes, but knows in doing so it will dispell the desire that comes from not having, thus she must deny what she most wants in order to preserve what the "other" wants...which in this case is "to view her face in full", to possess knowledge of her, full and complete.

How this relates to love is this: until a man has full knowledge of a woman, he wants to know her "because" he doesn't know her. He wants to fill in the hidden parts with knowledge, he wants to know what it's like to kiss her, to hold her, to love her. However, the lady understands that as soon as she gives in to him, even though she may desire him to know her, that the mystery will be gone and the "want" may disappear. After the first time, it's just reruns.

So, in order to capture the love of a man, a "lady" would hide a portion of her so that there is always some mystery, for fear that once the mystery is gone, once he's satisfied, the want will be gone and he will seek another mystery. It shows the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't dimension of being human. It is human nature to want what you don't have more than what you do, and to wonder about those things yet to be seen. Love is not the same as desire; love should remain once desire is satisfied. However, when you can't be sure of love, you want to prolong desire, and this requires want, which must be denied.

Crazy, yes, but part of being human.

Answer 5

I took it as hiding behind the viel hide her true identity. she doesn't want to speak or lift the veil to let the mystery go. It is as a daydream to her that she doesn't want to end.

Answer 6

metaphor, I stink at spelling, analogy, it's just a saying to decribe something amazing I assume never read any of her poems, i probably should ;]