We never know how high we are

We never know how high we are: analysis

Introduction

"We never know how high we are" is an eight-line poem by Emily Dickinson. It is about the gap between what people are and what they let themselves be. The first stanza says that our true height shows only when we are called on to rise.

The second stanza turns this into a charge against ourselves. Heroism would be ordinary, it says, if fear did not make us shrink our own measure. The poem speaks for everyone as we, and it ends on the word "King".

Summary

The first stanza makes a general statement in the first person plural, speaking for all of us at once. The speaker says that "We never know how high we are" until a particular moment arrives. That moment comes when "we are asked to rise" (line 2). A condition follows in line 3: "if we are true to plan". If that condition holds, the speaker says, "Our statures touch the skies" (line 4), and the stanza closes on a dash.

The second stanza turns to "The Heroism we recite" (line 5), meaning the brave deeds that people tell and repeat. The speaker says that such heroism "Would be a normal thing" (line 6). It is not normal because of something we do to ourselves. In line 7 we "the Cubits warp", bending the units by which we are measured. We do this "For fear to be a King" (line 8), and the poem ends, like the first stanza, on a dash.

Themes and meaning

The first theme is hidden capacity. Line 1 says we "never know" our height, so it exists before anyone measures it. It becomes visible only under demand, when "we are asked to rise". The verb is passive, and the call comes from outside without the poem saying who makes it. The reward is large: "Our statures touch the skies".

The second theme is self-limitation. Lines 7 and 8 place the fault inside us, since "ourselves" warp the "Cubits". The image is exact: we do not simply fall short of a measure but bend the measuring unit itself, so our smallness looks true. The cause is named as fear, though not fear of failure. It is "fear to be a King", a fear of greatness and of the standing it brings.

The third theme is the nature of heroism. "The Heroism we recite" is heroism told as story, usually about others. The poem deflates it: such deeds "Would be a normal thing". This can be read as praise of ordinary people, who hold heroic height in reserve. It can also be read as a rebuke, since the heroic stays rare only by our choice.

The poem also leaves open a question of ambition and humility. "Till we are asked to rise" suggests that rising should wait for an invitation. "true to plan" may mean a person's own purpose or a design laid down by someone else. The second stanza, though, treats holding back as a failure. Both readings have support in the text.

Tone

The first stanza is calm and assured. It speaks in the manner of a proverb, with the absolute "never" in line 1. The promise in line 4 is confident and even exalted: "Our statures touch the skies". Yet the condition in line 3, "if we are true to plan", keeps the promise from being easy.

The second stanza shifts to gentle reproach. "Did not ourselves the Cubits warp" admits a fault. Because the speaker says "ourselves", the blame is shared and not handed down from above. The last line names fear plainly, without scorn. The closing dash leaves the image of the "King" hanging, so the tone ends rueful but open rather than settled.

Form and structure

The poem has 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The lines alternate between 8 and 6 syllables, the full range being 6 to 8. This is common metre, the pattern of many hymns. The longer lines are iambic tetrameter and the shorter ones iambic trimeter. The metre is regular throughout, as in 'we NEV-er KNOW how HIGH we ARE'.

Only the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme, giving ABCB and DEFE. Both rhymes are full: "rise" with "skies" and "thing" with "King". Each stanza ends with a dash. The syntax of line 7 is inverted to keep the metre. Capitals mark three nouns: "Heroism", "Cubits" and "King".

Poetic devices

Metaphor line 1

how high we are Height stands for worth or capacity. The whole poem is built on this measurement of a person's inner size.

Alliteration line 1

how high The repeated h sound links the question of how much with the idea of height, and gives the opening line its lift.

Passive voice line 2

we are asked to rise The call comes from outside and its source is never named. This leaves open whether circumstance, other people or God does the asking.

Hyperbole line 4

Our statures touch the skies The exaggeration shows how far the hidden capacity reaches. It turns the metaphor of height into a physical image of growth.

Irony line 6

Would be a normal thing What we praise as heroism is called normal. The flat word deflates the grand one and shifts the question to why it is rare.

Inversion line 7

Did not ourselves the Cubits warp The word order puts "ourselves" early and the verb last. This stresses who is to blame and keeps the iambic metre.

Metaphor line 7

the Cubits warp The units of measure themselves are bent. People do not just fall short of a standard but distort the standard to fit their fear.

Symbol line 8

a King The king stands for the full height a person could reach, with the rule and responsibility it brings.

Rhyme line 8

For fear to be a King "King" rhymes with "thing" in line 6. The sound pairs the normal with the royal, which is the poem's point.

Dash line 4

Our statures touch the skies -- The dash leaves the stanza open, as if the growth has no fixed end. The last line of the poem ends the same way.

Words worth knowing

statures

Bodily height, but also standing or rank gained by growth or achievement. Both senses work here.

recite

To repeat aloud or tell over, as a story or a lesson learned by heart.

Cubits

An ancient unit of length, roughly a forearm long. Here it means the measure we use for ourselves.

warp

To bend or twist out of true shape. The measure is distorted, not merely misread.

true to plan

Faithful to a design or purpose. The text does not say whose plan it is.

Context

Emily Dickinson lived from 1830 to 1886. The poem is number 1176 in Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, published in 1955. It has been on americanpoems.com since January 2004 and was the site's Poem of the Day on 22 November 2014.

What readers have said

• LG reads the first stanza as saying that circumstances force us to find our capacities, and rejects the humility reading of the second. For LG, the poem criticises our reluctance to push ourselves, take charge and lead. LG, 2006
• Joseph reads the poem as about humility, not ambition. He links it to the parable in Luke 14 about not taking the highest seat until bidden. Joseph, 2012
• maria stentiford reads the second stanza as saying that people fear success more than failure. To be a King is frightening and invites jealousy and malice, so staying with the status quo feels safer. maria stentiford, 2022
• joe notes that "statures" means standing gained by achievement, not physical height, and that a cubit is a unit of measure. He reads the poem as about the gap between how we say we will act and how we act when tested. joe, 2005
• Barnaby Lancaster read it as a poem about drugs, taking "Heroism" as a pun on heroin and "high" as intoxication. Later commenters rejected this and said heroism means being a hero. Barnaby Lancaster, 2005
• silvia reads the call to rise as death, when we learn how much we matter as we are called to rise to the sky with God. silvia, 2009