The author addresses similarities between poetry and the early stages of psychoanalytic interpretation by discussing a psychoanalytic vignette and excerpts from the work of Emily Dickinson, utilizing Matte Blanco's concept of symmetry and asymmetry. In the beginning of an analysis, the analyst's understanding may be expressed in net-like, fumbling words, which will naturally influence the analysand's experience. Words are initially used in searching and unexpected, symmetrical ways, and later, they gradually come to be used in ordinary, more asymmetrical ways. The suggestive nature of early analytic communications creates links to what is otherwise unobtainable. A facet of the interpretation process is to enable the analysand to think previously unthinkable thoughts. New perspectives evolve in the analysand's mind only when words are linked to reality perceptions and to a stable psychoanalytic frame, which constitutes