From the poem itself, it is not evident that Dickinson is
trying to help anyone specific. Therefore, it is possible that she's saying that if just
one person is impacted by her poetry, she "has not lived in
vain."
It's important to take a step back here, however.
When reading poetry, we must make sure that we do not just assume that the poet is the
speaker of the poem. The speaker of a poem is similar to the narrator of a story. That
being said, I think we can make the case that Dickinson herself, is speaking
here.
If we make that choice, we can tell by her word
choice, or diction, that she doesn't mean anyone specific. For instance, in the first
line, she says, "If I can stop one heart from breaking." She uses the word "one," rather
than "your" or someone's name. She also uses "heart" and "life" as what she's trying to
save, which are very general terms to the concept of humanity. She
does however, become specific in talking about the robin. In that light, we can further
our case that she's being general about humanity.
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