"Freezing Lips"
"Victory comes to those who cannot even taste its sweetness through 'freezing lips,' just as it comes too late for soldiers who give their lives on the battlefield. No matter who wins the battle or the war, the victory means nothing to the dead" (Montiero).
When I first read Emily Dickinson's poem about victory, I was very confused about the "freezing lips." This clarified it for me. The freezing lips relate to the dead soldiers, and they cannot experience the victory of the war is they were killed. Is victory really worth all of the lives taken in its name? It is a question each person must answer.
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Recent Comments
Ally Hall on "Freezing Lips": I also found Montiero's discus
Juliana Cox on "Freezing Lips": Montiero's dicussion and analy
Juliana Cox on "Freezing Lips": Montiero's dicussion and analy
Montiero's dicussion and analysis of the poem really does help to clarrify meaning of the poem. I would not have understood the meaning of the "freezong lip" either if the relation to the soldiers was never mentioned.
I also found Montiero's discussion of the poem extremely helpful. I didn't know a ton about Emily Dickinson before, only that she was a very solitary person. Montiero's analysis of "Victory Comes Late" helped me understand more of what Dickinson may have been feeling when she wrote the poem. I too didn't really understand the "freezing lips", but I figured it had to do something with death.