Analysis of "Crumbling is not an instant’s Act" "Crumbling is not an instant’s Act" is a lyric by Emily Dickinson. It tells how crumbling does not happen instantaneously; it is a gradual process occurring slowly and cumulatively over time. The structure of this poem is complex and it tied directly into the figurative meaning. This poem consists of three quatrains written in iamic meter but with no set number of feet per line. Also, the second and fourth lines of each quatrain thyme somewhat. Perhaps the most perplexing attribute of the structure is that Dickinson capitalizes words in mid-sentence that would not normally be capit