A bird came down the walk: He did not know I
saw; He bit an angle-worm in halves And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes That hurried all abroad,-- They
looked like frightened beads, I thought; He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious, I offered him a
crumb, And he unrolled his feathers And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean, Too silver for a seam, Or butterflies,
off banks of noon, Leap, plashless, as they swim.
*This
poem is about a bird making contact with the author and she views him as a wild creature in nature because he gets scared
of her as she approaches him.In the first stanza, the bird does not know the
author is present so he behaves normal.You can tell the bird is wild as he bites
the worm in half and eats it.In the last six lines the author describes the
birds beauty as he fly’s away. The author is saying even though he is a danger to nature, he is still graceful by his
flight.In the very end of the poem it says “Leap, plashless, as they swim,
is saying that the bird didn’t splash as he swam being graceful. Overall
this poem is about the danger and beauty of nature.
I Heard a fly buzz when I died
I heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air Between the
heaves of storm.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And breaths were gathering sure For that last onset, when the king Be
witnessed in his power.
I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me I Could make assignable,-and then There interposed a
fly,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then I could
not see to see.
*This poem is about death being painless, yet the vision of death presents
itself as horrifying even gruesome.The appearance of the fly is at the climax
of life merely startles us.By the end of the poem the fly has acquired a dreadful
meaning.Clearly the central image is the fly.It makes a literal appearance in three of the four stanzas and is what the speaker
experiences in dying.
Wild Nights
Wild nights! Wild nights! Were I with thee, Wild nights should be Our luxury!
Futile the winds To a heart in port, Done with the compass, Done with the chart.
Rowing in Eden! Ah! the sea! Might I but moor To-night in thee!
*This poem is about sexual passion. This poem expresses wish or desire by some of the lines in the poem, including
“were I with thee or Might I but moor”.The line to a heart in port
in the lovers chamber.The speaker is male referring to the line “but moor”.Another way of reading this poem is in a religious way, where god is the lover.
I Taste A liquor never Brewed
I taste a liquor never brewed, From tankards scooped in pearl; Not all the vats upon the Rhine Yield such
an alcohol!
Inebriate of air am I, And debauchee of dew, Reeling, through endless summer days, From inns of molten blue.
When landlords turn the drunken bee Out of the foxglove's door, When butterflies renounce their drams, I
shall but drink the more!
Till seraphs swing their snowy hats, And saints to windows run, To see the little tippler Leaning against
the sun!
*In this poem Dickinson describes the exilerating effect of nature.She uses the metaphor of drunkness and intoxication to express of the beauty of nature
elates her. The readers can relate to this poem by remembering a time they felt this way. Emily describes jumping into liquor
is the color of a pearl color and is a white foam. Emily also uses this poem to express her naughty girl persona, where as
in some of her other poems she uses her sweet girl persona.
A Narrow Fellow in the Grass
A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides; You may have met him,--did you not, His notice sudden is.
The
grass divides as with a comb, A spotted shaft is seen; And then it closes at your feet And opens further on.
He
likes a boggy acre, A floor too cool for corn. Yet when a child, and barefoot, I more than once, at morn,
Have
passed, I thought, a whip-lash Unbraiding in the sun,-- When, stooping to secure it, It wrinkled, and was gone.
Several
of nature's people I know, and they know me; I feel for them a transport Of cordiality;
But never met this
fellow, Attended or alone, Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone.
*This poem is another one of Dickinson’s poems where she presents the point of a child,
but the speaker is now an adult looking back.The snake in this poem is misleading
and is just swiftly passing by. His appearance is "sudden." The snake's passing briefly divides the grass in one place,
and then does the same thing somewhere else. The snake is also hard to see.The
speaker misinterprets the snake for a lash of a whip. This poem is about the threat or danger that may suddenly reveal itself
in nature. Zero is a hint of death or the presence of death.
The Heart Asks Pleasure First
The heart asks pleasure
first, And then, excuse from pain; And then, those little anodynes That deaden suffering,
And then, to
go to sleep; And then, if it should be The will of its Inquisitor, The liberty to die.
*This poem is
about the order of requests arranged by the heart. There is an order of importance when it comes to the heart.The first request is for pleasure, but the remaining requests ask for relief from pain. The pain increases
as the poem goes on. The remedies to relieve the pain become increasingly strong,
with the final request being death.You can read this poem as an alternate reading
as where this poem can be seen as tracing our progress through life.The child
wants pleasure and as we grow older, we experience pain, which increases with age.
I’ll Tell You How The Sun Rose
I'll
tell you how the sun rose, A ribbon at a time. The steeples swam in amethyst, The news like squirrels ran. The
hills untied their bonnets, The bobolinks begun. Then I said softly to myself, "That must have been the sun!"
........................ But
how he set, I know not. There seemed a purple stile Which little yellow boys and girls Were climbing all the while
Till
when they reached the other side, A dominie in gray Put gently up the evening bars, And led the flock away.
*This poem is where Dickinson
adopts her playful, little girl persona in this charming persona. There aren’t any hidden messages in this poem just
pleasure in the beauty of sunrise and sunset. We read this poem as symbolically.Sunrise
and sunset are traditional symbols for birth and death. The rays from the sun can symbolize youth’s vanity and innocence.Steeples symbolize religion or god.
I
Had Been Hungry All The Years
I
had been hungry all the years; My noon had come, to dine; I, trembling, drew the table near, And touched the curious
wine.
'T
was this on tables I had seen, When turning, hungry, lone, I looked in windows, for the wealth I could not hope
to own.
I
did not know the ample bread, 'T was so unlike the crumb The birds and I had often shared In Nature's dining-room.
The
plenty hurt me, 't was so new, Myself felt ill and odd, As berry of a mountain bush Transplanted to the road.
Nor was I hungry; so I found That
hunger was a way Of persons outside windows, The entering takes away.
* This poem is about the speakers
hunger and inability to eat literally. This poem can be looked at as a poem about anorexia, homelessness and poverty or you
can read it as what the speaker lacks and what others possess.The end of the
poem the speaker realizes that she is no longer hungry and she no longer desires what she lacked all the years, now that it
is available to her. It hurt the speaker so much and made her ill she finally realized that it wasn’t worth it anymore.
I Started Early- Took My Dog
I started Early - Took my Dog - And visited the Sea - The Mermaids in the Basement Came
out to look at me -
And Frigates - in the Upper Floor Extended Hempen Hands - Presuming Me to be a
Mouse - Aground - upon the Sands -
But no Man moved Me - till the Tide Went past my simple Shoe - And past my Apron
- and my Belt And past my Bodice - too -
And made as He would eat me up - As wholly as a Dew Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve
- And then - I started - too -
And He - He followed - close behind - I felt His Silver Heel Upon my Ankle - Then
my Shoes Would overflow with Pearl -
Until
We met the Solid Town - No One He seemed to know And bowing - with a Mighty look - At me - The Sea withdrew –
*This poem is about a young girl walking to the sea
with her dog. She enjoys herself until the tide catches her and becomes freightened and runs to the town for safety.The dog is there to offer companionship but not protection. This poem shows what the
sea represents to the speaker, being attacked by and frightened by. The sea can represent many things but we came up with
the conclusion of death.The sea is represented as having a loss of identity
and control. This poem can also be seen as a symbol of nature and how deadly nature can be.
My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close
My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to see If Immortality
unveil A third event to me, So huge, so hopeless to conceive, As
these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.
* This poem is about death also and how the speaker uses
death to describe the torment of two events that happened. We don’t know what these events are. Emily could be referring
to the death of two people or the end of love between two people.The pain of
these events was so sharp as described in the poem because she feels her life has ended. Despite her feeling she is physically
still alive and she can experience the pain of more losses then just one.
After great
pain a formal feeling comes
After great pain a formal feeling comes-- The
nerves sit ceremonious like tombs; The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore? And yesterday--or centuries before?
The
feet, mechanical, go round A wooden way Of ground, or air, or ought, Regardless grown, A quartz contentment, like
a stone.
This
is the hour of lead Remembered if outlived, As freezing persons recollect the snow-- First chill, then stupor, then
the letting go.
* In this poem after reading it the response is what matters. I think throughout this
poem she is talking about emotional pain. Also this poem is talking about the human psychology and responses of pain. It’s
talking about letting go of pain that you are flooded by and how pain can overwhelm you so bad and permanently. This experience
is something that all of us will experience some day or maybe already have.
Safe in
their alabaster chambers
Safe in their alabaster chambers, Untouched
by morning and untouched by noon, Sleep the meek members of the resurrection, Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.
Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;
Babbles the bee in a stolid ear; Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence,-- Ah, what sagacity perished here!
Grand
go the years in the crescent above them; Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row, Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.
*The word alabaster has two meanings, expensive and beautiful. Chambers is a reference
to a tomb and the dead laying in it asleep. The satin is what lines the coffin lid and the tomb is stone. This poem mainly
discusses the theme of god and it also death, which is a reoccurring theme in many of Emily Dickinson’s poems.
Pain Has An Element Of Blank
Pain
has an element of blank; It cannot recollect When it began, or if there was A time when it was not.
It has no future but itself, Its infinite realms contain Its past, enlightened to perceive New periods of
pain.
*In this poem Dickinson is speaking about two aspects of pain. Its timelessness and irresistible. The poem is
structured by time, the past, present and the future. I think this poem is about someone that is suffering a lot of pain.I think it is from the pains view and not the person who is experiencing the pain.
Pain dominates us and displaces everything else in our lives.
I cannot live with you
I
cannot live with you, It would be life, And life is over there Behind the shelf
The
sexton keeps the key to, Putting up Our life, his porcelain, Like a cup
Discarded
of the housewife, Quaint or broken; A newer Sevres pleases, Old ones crack.
I
could not die with you, For one must wait To shut the other's gaze down, You could not.
And
I, could I stand by And see you freeze, Without my right of frost, Death's privilege?
Nor
could I rise with you, Because your face Would put out Jesus', That new grace
Glow
plain and foreign On my homesick eye, Except that you, than he Shone closer by.
They'd
judge us-how? For you served Heaven, you know, Or sought to; I could not,
Because
you saturated sight, And I had no more eyes For sordid excellence As Paradise.
And
were you lost, I would be, Though my name Rang loudest On the heavenly fame.
And
were you saved, And I condemned to be Where you were not, That self were hell to me.
So
we must keep apart, You there, I here, With just the door ajar That oceans are, And prayer, And that pale sustenance, Despair!
*This poem we all felt was one of Emily Dickinson’s best love poems and also her most famous love poem.
This poem is talking about the intensity of her love and the despair at their having to remain apart. It also talks about
that her and her lover can’t be together in this lifetime. This is another one of Dickinson’s poems of not having,
a form of exclusion.
I felt a
funeral in my brain
I felt a funeral in my brain,
And mourners, to and fro, Kept treading, treading, till it seemed That sense
was breaking through.
And
when they all were seated, A service like a drum Kept beating, beating, till I thought
My mind was going numb.
And
then I heard them lift a box, And creak across my soul With those same boots of lead,
Then space began to toll
As
all the heavens were a bell, And Being but an ear, And I and silence some strange race,
Wrecked, solitary, here.
And then a plank in reason, broke,
And I dropped down and down-- And hit a world at every plunge, And
finished knowing--then—
*This poem was a terrifying
one to read. The speaker is experiencing the loss of self. This poem also is stating the experience that she is going through
and the madness and the horror most of us feel about going crazy. Dickinson uses the metaphor funeral because a part of her
is going to crazy that she feels she is dying and that is her reason of being overwhelmed. It’s like a big nightmare.
She sweeps
with many-colored brooms
She sweeps with many-colored brooms, And leaves
the shreds behind; Oh, housewife in the evening west, Come back, and dust the pond!
You
dropped a purple ravelling in, You dropped an amber thread; And now you've littered all the East With duds of
emerald!
And
still she plies her spotted brooms, And still the aprons fly, Till brooms fade softly into stars And then I come
away.
*This poem you can tell that Dickinson is in a playful mood. It is comparing a beautiful
sunset to a woman cleaning her home. She is using the colors in her poem of how we all know how the sun casting different
colors in the sky and tinkts the clouds and landscape.
