The author addresses the similarities between poetry and the early stages of psychoanalytic interpretation by discussing a psychoanalytic vignette and excerpts from the work of Emily Dickinson in terms of Matte Blanco's terms symmetry and asymmetry. In the beginning of an analysis, the analyst's understanding is expressed in net-like, fumbling words, which influence the analysand's experience. Words are initially used in searching and unexpected, symmetrical ways and later, gradually in ordinary, more asymmetrical ways. The suggestive nature of early analytical 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 a stable psychoanalytic frame that constitute a necessary background to the emerging asymmetrical reflection and new self-representations.