The Only News I Know

Unlike many of Dickinson’s more famous poems, “The Only News I know” is not written in a hymn meter or ballad stanza structure. The poem is comprised of four tercets or three-line stanzas, for a total of twelve lines. Each line—with the exception of the twelfth and final line— is written in a halting form of iambic trimeter (six syllabic lines with a repeating pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables). The twelfth line adheres to iambic dimeter (a four syllabic line of unstressed and stressed syllables). The poem follows an ABC CBC DDE CFG rhyme scheme, meaning no stanza repeats the same rhyming pattern. While there are end rhymes throughout the poem, the rhyming is inconsistent, with the first and final stanzas lacking any kind of rhyming.

After the natural iambic rhythm created in the first stanza, Dickinson slows the rhythm of her poem and creates additional pauses with punctuation. As is typical of Dickinson’s poetry, “The Only News I know” features a number of dashes throughout. In the third stanza, Dickinson uses dashes to delay certain revelations. Before revealing what the “Only Street” (Line 8) she sees is, Dickinson inserts a dash immediately before the word “Existence” (Line 9).