Emily Dickinson

“Fortune befriends the bold.”

December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886
• Born to a well respected, successful family

• Amherst, Massachusetts

• Men were lawyers with political aspirations

• Denied this life because she was a woman

“Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.”

Emily Dickinson

• attended Amherst Academy

• one year of study at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

• gained notoriety as the only student not willing to

publicly confess her faith

“Christ is calling everyone here, all my companions have

answered, even my darling Vinnie [sister Lavinia]
believes she loves, and trusts him, and I am standing
alone in rebellion.”
• lifelong willingness to oppose popular sentiment

• Independence of writing
 Her death
• On May 15, 1886, Emily Dickinson died from Bright’s Disease, a form of
kidney disease

“Because I could not stop for Death— He kindly stopped for me— The
Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality.” -The Chariot (Because I
Could Not Stop For Death) by Emily Dickinson
 Poet
• Private

• Helen Hunt Jackson, implored Emily to submit her poems

• only published between seven and eleven poems before her death
• wrote her poems in an unusual meter

• mystical way of expressing love, hope and mortality

• Had problems with her eyes but counitnued writing

• 1,147 poems- 833 bound and stitched by Emily

Poems of Emily Dickinson: Series 1 (1890) – 500 copies

Poems of Emily Dickinson : Second Series

(1891)- 960 copies

Poems of Emily Dickinson : Third Series

(1896)- 1000 copies
• shied away from social gatherings

• very active in sending correspondence to friends and associates

Letters of Emily Dickinson (1894)

“This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me,-- The simple news that
Nature told, With tender majesty. Her message is committed To hands I cannot
see; For love of her, sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me!” -This is My
Letter to the World by Emily Dickinson
Works of Emily Dickinson
 Success is counted sweetest
Success is counted sweetest Can tell the definition

By those who ne'er succeed. So clear of victory

To comprehend a nectar
As he defeated – dying –
Requires sorest need.
On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Not one of all the purple Host
Burst agonized and clear!
Who took the Flag today
• Early poem  1859
• Succes is best understood by those who fail  value
and meaning of success
• Success  paradox
• Painful truths of human desire
• Images of soldiers
MAJOR THEMES:
• Need, success and defeat
• Success is valuable for those who have lost something
in life
• ˝sweetest˝ and ˝nectar˝  success and desire
• Central idea does not seem limited to the specific
examples given
 Literary Devices
CONSONANCE
˝Requires sorest need˝
˝The distant strains of triumph˝
˝Success is counted sweetest˝

SYMBOLISM
˝nectar˝  victory and luxury
˝the purple host˝  symbol of the royal army
 Literary Devices
ENJAMBMENT (thought or clause that does not come to an end at a
line break)
˝Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.˝

METAPHOR
˝to comprehend nectar˝  sweetnes of victory
 Literary Devices
ASSONANCE
˝Who took the Flag today˝

SYNCOPE
˝By those who ne’er succeed˝

PARADOX
“Success is counted sweetest; By those who ne’er succeed.”
 Poetic Devices
STANZA – 3 stanzas, each comprises four lines (quatrain)
QUATRAIN – four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry
• Free verse poem; no strict rhyme or meter
END RHYME – used to make the stanza melodious
˝ear˝ and ˝clear˝

• This poem follows the iambic trimeter

 Wild Nights
Wild nights - Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be Rowing in Eden –
Our luxury! Ah - the Sea!
Might I but moor - tonight –
Futile - the winds – In thee!
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
• 3 stanza poem separated into quatrains
• No specific pattern of rhyme – each stanza stands alone
• First stanza – unusual pattern abbb
• Lots of dashes
METAPHOR
˝Wild nights˝ - repeated  emphasis is important
• Refers to a night of passion – sexual or spiritual nature
˝heart in port˝
• Emotional bonding, physical coming together
˝Rowing in Eden˝
• Representative of ultimate pleasure
 Context
• Early 1860s
• Emotional plea for continued passion
• Love and passion  aimed at a lover, or spiritual love for God
• Dickinson came from a very strict, religious household
• She seeks more of these moments
• Use of nautical metaphors  to describe the way of navigating to her
partner/God’s love
 I felt a funeral in my brain
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading - treading - till it And then I heard them lift a Box
seemed And creak across my Soul
That Sense was breaking through - With those same Boots of Lead,
again,
And when they all were seated, Then Space - began to toll,
A Service, like a Drum –
Kept beating - beating - till I
thought
My mind was going numb -
As all the Heavens were a Bell, And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And Being, but an Ear, And I dropped down, and down -

And I, and Silence, some strange And hit a World, at every plunge,
Race,
And Finished knowing - then -
Wrecked, solitary, here -
 Context
• 1861  her most creative period
• Explores themes of madness, despair and irrational nature of the
universe
• Depicts an unnerving series of events based around a ˝funeral˝ 
unfolds within the speaker
• Poem gradually expands
• Speakes descent into madness
• Loss of self in the chaos of the unconscious
• ˝funeral˝ as a metaphor
• Part of her is dying
• She is not observing the funeral  feeling it
• Observer/participant  self is divided
• ˝mourners˝ as a metaphor to express her pain
• Speaker has the impression that reason is escaping
• Third and fourth stanza  speaker’s loss of rationality
• She sees herself as ˝wrecked, solitary˝  separation from other human
beings  becoming a member of ˝some strange race˝
• Last stanza  metaphor of standing on a plank or board over a precipice 
descent into irrationality – losing connection to reality
• -then- does not end  leaves open door for the nightmare-horror of
madness
 I taste a liquor never brewed
I taste a liquor never brewed –
From Tankards scooped in Pearl –
Not all the Frankfort Berries
Yield such an Alcohol!
Inebriate of air – am I –
And Debauchee of Dew –
Reeling – thro’ 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!
 Context
• Published in 1861
• Celebrates the intoxication of life in an ironical way
• Written in ballad metre, iambic lines
• Intimate one
• Main theme  nature – introduced by images of alcohol and drunkeness
• First stanza opens with a paradox and a metaphor
• Exhilirating effects of nature
• Drunkeness and intoxication  to express how the beauty of nature
elates her
• Intoxication by nature increases in the second stanza
“Reeling-thro’ endless summer days-/From inns of molten Blue-“
• Her liquor is more precious than Rhine whine
• Drunk on air and dew  nature
• Nature will intoxicate her forever  stanzas 3 and 4  ABCB rhyme
• Closure  use of religious figures instead of a dramatic ending
˝Leaning against the – Sun!˝
 I am Nobody! Who are you?
I’m Nobody! Who are
you? How dreary – to be –
Are you – Nobody – too? Somebody!
Then there’s a pair of us! How public – like a Frog –
Don’t tell! they’d advertise To tell one’s name – the
– you know! livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
• Published in 1891
• One of her shortest poems – only 2 stanzas
• Lots of dashes, unorthodox punctuation  classic Dickinson poem
• Main theme  self-identity; are we content with our identities
• First line – most popular of quotes
• First stanza  aimed directly at the reader – informal
• Secret pact between nobodies  them and us mindset
• It would be boring to be a ˝Somebody˝ - no privacy
Major themes  anonimity and solitude – praise of quiet, individual
contemplation  Nobodies are not alone
• Poem opens with an oxymoron – speaker introduces as Nobody
• Speaker’s name is the absence of a name or identity
• Encouraging others – nothing wrong about being a nobody (a badge
of honour)
• This state goes against the status quo  be a nobody secretly
• Being ˝somebody˝ = ˝dreary˝  preoccupied with promoting
themselves
• Human nature to seet attention/socialization  also important to
know how to be alone
• It is okay – even powerful – to be anonymous
Thank you for your attention!
 Sources
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Im-Nobody-Who-Are-You-by-Emily-Dickinson
https://
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/67591-the-10-best-emily-dickinson
-poems.html
https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/i-taste-a-liquor-never-brewed-214/
https://literarydevices.net/success-is-counted-sweetest/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45706/i-felt-a-funeral-in-my-brain-340
https://poets.org/poem/i-taste-liquor-never-brewed-214
https://interestingliterature.com/2019/03/a-short-analysis-of-emily-dickinsons-wild-nights-wild-nights/