Comments on "I taste a liquor never brewed"
Tuesday, 16. May 2006, 07:00:41
Dickinson whimsically describes the exhilarating effect of nature. She uses the metaphor of drunkenness or intoxication to express how the beauty of nature elates her. (Intoxication is a common metaphor for powerful attachments or thrilling feelings; for example, "He's drunk with power" or "Sky diving is intoxicating.") Dickinson plays with this metaphor by developing it literally and concretely. Dickinson establishes the drinking metaphor with the first line. Pearl, a precious gem, indicates the value of liquor made under the best of circumstances; her liquor (the beauty of nature) is even more precious. Ladling or dipping into liquor to drink it produces a white foam; color is another reason Dickinson chooses pearl. Her liquor is more precious than Rhine wine, a white wine which is highly regarded. With stanza 2, she tells us, humorously, what she is drunk on--air and dew, which represent nature. (A debauchee is someone corrupted or debased, usually by alcohol.) She is so drunk or "turned on," to use a modern metaphor, that she is staggering. In the last line she starts an image that continues through the third stanza--drinking at an inn. In other words, she is drunk with summer's splendor; the sky is intensely blue or "molten." How long will nature continue to intoxicate her? Stanzas three and four suggest forever. She will "drink" nature until foxgloves stop blooming and when butterflies give up gathering nectar from flowers. She equates nectar, and its positive assocations, with "drams" (dram: a small drink of liquor). And then? she will "drink" or revel in nature all the more. Part of the humor derives from the fact that nature itself drinks. To express how prodigious her enthusiasm for nature is, she asserts that the angels will shake their "snowy hats" (the clouds), and the saints will rush to see her. A possible implication of referring to saints and seraphs (note the alliteration) is that God approves of her drunkenness. The poem ends with a startling and powerful image: her leaning against the sun, as a drunk might lean against a lamppost. (Dickinson often ends her poems with a powerful image or statement.) Stanzas three and four go through the activities of a day and end with the sun beginning to set. This is a lighthearted, happy, playful, charming, and amusing poem. There are no shadows. It is possible to see in her presenting herself as a drunk a sublimated rebelliousness against society's restrictiveness or sanctimoniousness (a holier-than-thou attitude). Or perhaps you see a hint of Dickinson in a naughty little girl persona, in presenting herself as a "tippler" (one who drinks). The speaker is clearly naive and straightforward. All you have to do in reading this poem is enjoy it and perhaps remember times when you felt this joyful about nature.
This poem by Emily Dickinson is much harder to figure out compared to her usual poems. She writes about a topic that is not normally written about at this time especially by a woman. At first glance, it is thought that this poem is about liquor and all of the bad things that go along with it, when in all reality it is a poem about sheer happiness. Dickinson is speaking not of a high derived from any alcoholic beverage, but rather of one acquired from life itself.
Despite the existence of metaphorical comparisons with drunkenness and liquor, this is definitely not a poem about any form of chemical intoxication. It is an expression of the author's love for a "drunken state"', created by how wonderful she believes life to be.
In the second line, "From tankards scooped in Pearl," indicating special beer-drinking glasses, outfitted in pearl rather than in ceramic or in clay. According to my research, these were used during her time to drink in a more exquisite, elaborate fashion, usually when one had a notable fondness for a specific drink or occasion. So, she is not simply describing her intoxication from life, but she is going so far as to celebrate life with the finest cups from which to drink it. In the third and forth line she goes on to describe the vastness that this "drink" gives to her. She uses the reference to the vats upon the Rhine to indicate this vastness. The Rhine Valley is a city in Germany that is Europe's northernmost wine producing region. They used to store the majority of the wine that they produced in big barrels that were known as vats. Dickinson is trying to say here that even though some of the world's best alcohol is produced and stored here it doesn't even compare to the magnificence that life beholds. The second stanza starts to move in quite a different direction. Dickinson now is referring to how she gets "drunk" off of simple pleasures in life such as air and dew. These things excite and exhilarate her to make her feel as if she is drunk. The mention of "Reeling &endash; thro endless summer days," is another example of how the natural things in life such as a bright summer day can really enliven her to the point of feeling intoxicated. Dickinson starts to take a different approach in the third stanza by showing how every being has their own unique "drink" that gets them drunk. She says, that the bees are drunk off of the "Foxgloves," which are flowers that they get satisfied from. She also talks about the butterflies and how their "alcohol" is the "drams" that they drink. Although these are all ways that other animals get "drunk" off life Dickinson goes on to say that even if these beings turn down these "drinks" or are rejected from them, that she will continue drinking all the more then. The last stanza is one that is truly deep and to the point because this is when Dickinson makes a slight reference to religion by talking about angels and saints. She writes that she will not stop feeling this way about life until saints and angels witness the "drunk person" at one with the earth. In this stanza she is talking about when she dies. This is interesting because even though Dickinson rebeled against the church and conventional christianity she still believed in God. What she is eluding to here is an afterlife which means that she must believe in heaven. She implies here that when she goes to heaven she will not be "drunk" on life anymore because she will no longer be able to enjoy those same things, but will have a whole new array of things surrounding her.
Dickinson's main goal of this poem was to show that even though things may seem one way from the outside once you examine them they may be something totally different. This correlation not only can go for the examination of this poem, but also for Dickinson't life. Many people probably assumed that she was unhappy because she never married and she remained inside of her home for the majority of life. This poem is trying to point out though that Dickinson didn't need all of those worldly things to be happy. It was the little things that gave her joy and pleasure. Just being surrounded by nature and other creatures gave her the happiness that others need marriage and money to find.
Many of Dickinson's poems focus on the themes of life, love, and nature. This one has a little bit of all of those themes tied into it. It describes her love of life and nature by comparing it to the feeling one gets when they are drunk. Dickinson is very inspirational in this poem by showing us that there are many things in life to be greatful for and that we should experience this sense of joy and tranquility when we are surrounded by the simple pleasures of life that have been given to us all
Arranged in four line stanzas in common verse, alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter, and there are rhymes of various styles between the second and fourth line of each stanza. Characteristic is the dash replacing all punctuation except the quotation marks and a pair of exclamation points. The children's rhyme style of the poem adds to the naive delight of the poem, and three of the four rhymes are straight rhymes which is uncharacteristic of Dickinson who normally prefers slant rhyme.
With her capricious bee as the poet writer she gives metaphor upon no, within metaphor or perhaps both, to "drunk on beauty". Liquor, likened to precious gems these pearls as bubbles formed, atop beauty that is shining and clear even more than that highly regarded white wine. A debauchee staggering with summer's splendor under the sky of molton blue, forever she will tipple until foxgloves stop blooming and butterflies forgo dolloping nectars; when nature stops drinking of itself. So excited is this nature that she likens her joy to angels shaking showers of snow from halos this charmer exits the tavern of nature so tippled she must use the sun as her lamppost to lean upon for support. A salacious spin on the invisible and ineffable nature as a sacred site, a church in the world where the experience od a "sacrament of summer days" where occurs the transfiguration of God into world. An ascension of the saints through this to the losing of the conscious mind to the spirit only to pause and lean upon the sun as the lighted lamppost of God, where angels rush in to see.
This poem by Emily Dickinson is much harder to figure out compared to her usual poems. She writes about a topic that is not normally written about at this time especially by a woman. At first glance, it is thought that this poem is about liquor and all of the bad things that go along with it, when in all reality it is a poem about sheer happiness. Dickinson is speaking not of a high derived from any alcoholic beverage, but rather of one acquired from life itself.
Despite the existence of metaphorical comparisons with drunkenness and liquor, this is definitely not a poem about any form of chemical intoxication. It is an expression of the author's love for a "drunken state"', created by how wonderful she believes life to be.
In the second line, "From tankards scooped in Pearl," indicating special beer-drinking glasses, outfitted in pearl rather than in ceramic or in clay. According to my research, these were used during her time to drink in a more exquisite, elaborate fashion, usually when one had a notable fondness for a specific drink or occasion. So, she is not simply describing her intoxication from life, but she is going so far as to celebrate life with the finest cups from which to drink it. In the third and forth line she goes on to describe the vastness that this "drink" gives to her. She uses the reference to the vats upon the Rhine to indicate this vastness. The Rhine Valley is a city in Germany that is Europe's northernmost wine producing region. They used to store the majority of the wine that they produced in big barrels that were known as vats. Dickinson is trying to say here that even though some of the world's best alcohol is produced and stored here it doesn't even compare to the magnificence that life beholds. The second stanza starts to move in quite a different direction. Dickinson now is referring to how she gets "drunk" off of simple pleasures in life such as air and dew. These things excite and exhilarate her to make her feel as if she is drunk. The mention of "Reeling &endash; thro endless summer days," is another example of how the natural things in life such as a bright summer day can really enliven her to the point of feeling intoxicated. Dickinson starts to take a different approach in the third stanza by showing how every being has their own unique "drink" that gets them drunk. She says, that the bees are drunk off of the "Foxgloves," which are flowers that they get satisfied from. She also talks about the butterflies and how their "alcohol" is the "drams" that they drink. Although these are all ways that other animals get "drunk" off life Dickinson goes on to say that even if these beings turn down these "drinks" or are rejected from them, that she will continue drinking all the more then. The last stanza is one that is truly deep and to the point because this is when Dickinson makes a slight reference to religion by talking about angels and saints. She writes that she will not stop feeling this way about life until saints and angels witness the "drunk person" at one with the earth. In this stanza she is talking about when she dies. This is interesting because even though Dickinson rebeled against the church and conventional christianity she still believed in God. What she is eluding to here is an afterlife which means that she must believe in heaven. She implies here that when she goes to heaven she will not be "drunk" on life anymore because she will no longer be able to enjoy those same things, but will have a whole new array of things surrounding her.
Dickinson's main goal of this poem was to show that even though things may seem one way from the outside once you examine them they may be something totally different. This correlation not only can go for the examination of this poem, but also for Dickinson't life. Many people probably assumed that she was unhappy because she never married and she remained inside of her home for the majority of life. This poem is trying to point out though that Dickinson didn't need all of those worldly things to be happy. It was the little things that gave her joy and pleasure. Just being surrounded by nature and other creatures gave her the happiness that others need marriage and money to find.
Many of Dickinson's poems focus on the themes of life, love, and nature. This one has a little bit of all of those themes tied into it. It describes her love of life and nature by comparing it to the feeling one gets when they are drunk. Dickinson is very inspirational in this poem by showing us that there are many things in life to be greatful for and that we should experience this sense of joy and tranquility when we are surrounded by the simple pleasures of life that have been given to us all
Arranged in four line stanzas in common verse, alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter, and there are rhymes of various styles between the second and fourth line of each stanza. Characteristic is the dash replacing all punctuation except the quotation marks and a pair of exclamation points. The children's rhyme style of the poem adds to the naive delight of the poem, and three of the four rhymes are straight rhymes which is uncharacteristic of Dickinson who normally prefers slant rhyme.
With her capricious bee as the poet writer she gives metaphor upon no, within metaphor or perhaps both, to "drunk on beauty". Liquor, likened to precious gems these pearls as bubbles formed, atop beauty that is shining and clear even more than that highly regarded white wine. A debauchee staggering with summer's splendor under the sky of molton blue, forever she will tipple until foxgloves stop blooming and butterflies forgo dolloping nectars; when nature stops drinking of itself. So excited is this nature that she likens her joy to angels shaking showers of snow from halos this charmer exits the tavern of nature so tippled she must use the sun as her lamppost to lean upon for support. A salacious spin on the invisible and ineffable nature as a sacred site, a church in the world where the experience od a "sacrament of summer days" where occurs the transfiguration of God into world. An ascension of the saints through this to the losing of the conscious mind to the spirit only to pause and lean upon the sun as the lighted lamppost of God, where angels rush in to see.
WIDGETIZE
moonriver~ # 20. May 2006, 14:14