Whose cheek is this?

Dickinson’s poem provides several images or symbols of thriving, vibrant subjects. The speaker describes the “rosy face” flush with life in Line 2. The pink “cheek” (Line 1) could refer to the blossom of a flower or to a young girl or woman in the bloom of life. The “Robins” (Line 6) that appear in the second stanza represent new life and rebirth. However, just as this imagery represents life, birth, and youth, the poem likewise addresses the alternative. Over time, the cheek that is flush with youth will fade, losing its “blush” (Line 3). Robins, the birds that are supposed to sing in new life and youthful energy, are the same birds that act as funeral attendants in the poem. The robins see the wilted flower or the dead body and “cover such with leaves” (Line 7). The beauty of the “cheek” (Line 8) becomes conflated with the “pall” (Line 9), or the funereal covering, so much so that the speaker’s “scrutiny deceives” (Line 10) them, and they cannot differentiate between the two. This conflation between life and death shows how they fade into one another. Life will eventually wane, no matter how big or how small the subject is.