"Like Time’s insidious wrinkle"

Like Time’s insidious wrinkle

On a beloved Face - 

We clutch the Grace the tighter

Though we resent the Crease

The Frost himself so comely

Dishevels every prime

Asserting from his Prism

That none can punish him 

Fr 1264

            

“Like Time’s insidious wrinkle” is a Dickinson poem about the inevitability of growing old and the unrelenting nature of time. The form that Dickinson chose for this poem is interesting. It could easily be split into two separate quatrains. The poem already follows the ABCB rhyme scheme, so the change in form would seem natural. Yet, Dickinson chose to write the poem in a single stanza. It is possible that this creative choice was due to the content of the poem. Since the subject is about the constancy of time, writing the poem in one stanza adds to the tone in important ways. “Like Time’s insidious wrinkle” also lacks Dickinson’s common use of dashes to break up the rhythm of her lines, with a dash appearing just once in the poem at the end of the second line. Because of these creative choices, the form of the poem mimics its subject matter. The poem flows from beginning to end without ceasing, just as time works on human beings from the moment of conception birth until death halts the process. 

The poem opens with the speaker remarking on the image of a familiar face, marked by age with “insidious wrinkles”. Most people can relate to the sentiment of these lines. For me, the lines brought into my mind the recent realization that my parents were no longer young, and the unsettling feeling in my stomach that followed this realization. Dickinson follows this opening with the lines “We clutch the Grace the tighter / Though we resent the Crease”(3-4). These lines are extremely important because they offer reasoning and hope in the face of inevitable aging and eventual death. Because of  the fleeting nature of life, we cling more strongly to moments of grace and love. This idea brings up questions of dichotomies. A theory that pops up often in human theology is the idea that without “evil”, there can be no “good”. After all, good and evil define each other in that one depends on the absence of the other. Similarly, this poem seems to be drawing a similar conclusion about our response to time and death. Though we resent it, and nobody likes seeing their loved ones grow old, it is because of this knowledge that we seek and exhibit grace in our lives and relationships. The poem also goes on to add that this is really the only option we have before us, as no one can “punish” time. Time is beyond humanity, it is untouchable, and every living being will be at its mercy without exception. The frost will dishevel every prime, and it is a one way relationship in which every person is at the mercy of time. However, it is through this vulnerability that humanity finds grace and meaning in life.