English Poetry assignment

 

I taste a liquor never brewed (207)

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!

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 The most important thing to know about Dickinson's poetry is that she wrote most of her poems as ballads, staying close to the 8-6-8-6 meter, but deviating from that rhythm when it suited her!  She has her own weird punctuation and capitalization system (can someone please figure it out for me?!).  She loves metaphors that are hard to crack.  And most of all, she isn't afraid of half-rhyme, also called imperfect or slant rhyme.  

1. Dickinson writes this four-stanza poem, and most of her poems, as a ballad.  Count syllables in all lines of Quatrain 3. Does she stick to an 8-6-8-6 format? As we saw with “The Daemon Lover,” authors of ballads often take some liberties with the meter, but usually maintain the long-short-long-short length of lines, typical of the ballad, along with an ABCB rhyme scheme throughout.

2. Dickinson is famous for her half-rhymes, so please chart a rhyme scheme (for the whole

poem), paying especial attention to her end rhymes, some of which are half-rhymes.

Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of a half-rhyme: “Half rhyme or imperfect rhyme,

sometimes called near-rhyme, lazy rhyme, or slant rhyme, is a type of

rhyme formed by words with similar but not identical sounds. In most

instances, either the vowel segments are different while the consonants are

identical, or vice versa.” You might want to look up the definition of half-rhyme

online on more than one website, but I like the wide net that Wikipedia casts and the

forgiveness it allows for words that aren’t perfect rhymes but have something in common.

Using Wikipedia’s definition, one might even call “rising” and “gliding” half rhymes (from

“Learn’d Astronomer”) since they have the same ending sound and they share a long I vowel

sound.

P.S. Dickinson can be quite subtle with some of her half or slant rhymes, so I recommend

reading her poem out loud; listen carefully!

3. Dickinson's poems are always somewhat obscure, difficult nuts to crack. This one is

filled with metaphors that make understanding it hard. Paraphrase the meaning of your

four assigned lines (Quatrain 3) and try to figure out what each metaphor in your quatrain

stands for. On top of that, provide an overall interpretation of the poem. (As

always, look up words you don’t know).

4. Make a list of words that Dickinson capitalizes. Why does she do this? Can you find a

pattern? Additionally, what’s weird about her punctuation? Why’s she punctuate this

way?

5. This should be the first thing you do: read up a little on Dickinson. When and where did

she live? She was a contemporary of Walt Whitman, interestingly enough (although she

apparently read an early version of Leaves of Grass and hated it, describing it as "vulgar"

and "ugly.") If you haven’t done so already, it might be a good idea to look up

transcendentalism and religion in the 19th century in America. Think of the ending to

Walt Whitman’s “Learn’d Astronomer.” Having some better understanding of the

resistance to traditional fire-and-brimstone Calvinism helps immensely in our

understanding of Dickinson. Moreover, read up on Dickinson’s attitude towards gardens

and nature.