Luck is not chance —
It’s Toil —
Fortune’s expensive smile
Is earned —
The Father of the Mine
Is that old-fashioned Coin
We spurned —

Analysis, meaning and summary of Emily Dickinson's poem Luck is not chance —

3 Comments

  1. Alexis says:

    this dose not tell me what the genre is so if you got the genre from this please tell me what it is.

  2. Tobrika Anderson says:

    This poem is the meaning of hard work. Its no about chanceing anything.Realize something good happened because you worked for it not because look brought chance.

  3. Dan says:

    I think that this poem contains images and deep meaning. This poem does not contain any sound though. This poem has a lot of deep meaning. I think the main message is that you have to earn what you receive. “Luck is not chance—
    It’s Toil—“this is explaining that, even though you may think it is, luck is not a chance. You have to work for it through your own blood, sweat, and tears. When Emily Dickinson writes, “Fortune’s expensive smile is earned” — she is referring to good luck. This is also something that you have to earn. Another quote is “The Father of the Mine
    Is that old-fashioned Coin”. I believe that this means that the father or creator of her luck was small. It was as small as a coin. Something that small which she put a lot of effort into grew into a great felling of reward and accomplishment. But, then you read the last line of the poem, “We spurned—.” Now suddenly the meaning is flipped around. I think that she is disappointed in something she has done in her life. Or, maybe r she took a chance, which she thought was good luck, and it turned out to be something that she intensely disliked. Lastly, there are a lot of images that you cold get from the 3rd line of the poem, “Fortune’s expensive smile”. There are so many because you honestly cannot picture a fortunes smile, since fortune is not a concrete object.

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