Drunk off Nature

Emily Dickinson needs to cool it off with her use of unnecessary capital letters and dashes...it is rather annoying. She's a strange, strange woman.

Anyway! For the first part of my blog I am going to define all of the words I did not know in this poem. Pretty much every other word.

• tankards- large drinking cups
• vat-a large container where wine is fermented
• inebriate- to be drunk
• debauchee- a person addicted to self-indulgence in pleasure
• reeling- a device that turns an axis
• drams- a small quantity
• seraphs- a member of the highest order of angels
• tippler- person drinking liquor
• foxglove- plant

Now onto a little breakdown of my opinion of the poem. Honestly, I had a really difficult time trying to interpret the meaning or the point that Emily Dickinson was trying to convey. However, this is my theory: the entire poem is about being drunk...on nature! Ding ding ding! There are several lines from the poem that made me think this way. For example, there is a reference to the "Rhine" which is a river, "air," "dew," "summer days," "Molten Blue," (which I am assuming is the sky), "bee," "foxgloves," "butterflies," "the sun," etc. Although the extended metaphor comparing alcohol and nature is clever and original, it is odd. Most of the time, being drunk is looked upon as something negative; however, she refers to "being drunk off nature" a good thing. In my opinion, she should have chosen another comparison.