“She feels some ghastly fright come up and stop to look at her” v. “She feels some ghastly fright coming up and stopping to look at her”

meaning-in-contextsense-verbsverbs

The Soul has Bandaged moments —
When too appalled to stir —
She feels some ghastly Fright come up
And stop to look at her —

What is the difference in meaning between the phrase contained in the last two lines of the stanza and the following:

She feels some ghastly fright coming up and stopping to look at her.

What meaning does Dickinson's choice of words impart?
P.S. This question is not a duplicate of my previous one – and so please do not close it.

Best Answer

In this poem, the soul is personified as a woman (she) and Fright is a ghost or goblin.

To paraphrase:

She feels a ghost approach
And stop to look at her -

Salute her, with long fingers -
Caress her freezing hair -

(She feels a ghost approach and stop to look at her - salute her and, with long fingers, caress her hair.)

If you want to change the aspect from simple to progressive, you get:

She feels a ghost approaching
And stopping to look at her -

Saluting her, with long fingers -
Caressing her freezing hair -

(She feels a ghost approaching and stopping to look at her - saluting her and, with long fingers, caressing her hair.)

What is the difference in meaning? Not much. Though, as a matter of style, the verb form that follows feel (as a verb of perception) reflects duration. Compare the simple aspect/infinitive and the progressive aspect/present participle:

I felt the ground shaking for about half a minute.
I felt the ground shake once.
Source: Grammaring — SEE, WATCH, HEAR, LISTEN, FEEL, SMELL, NOTICE, OBSERVE + object + present participle

Meanwhile, approach (draw near) already suggests duration, so the progressive is redundant, and stop — unless you’re pulling the train brakes — is a point in time . . .

I think Em knew what she was doing.

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