En la primera parte del Modpo (ese es el nombre con que se conoce al curso de poesía estadounidense moderna y contempránea que estoy haciendo) estudiamos a dos poetas protomodernistas: Emily Dickinson y Walt Whitman. Antes había leído algunos poemas de estos dos autores pero nunca los había estudiado con detenimiento. En la segunda semana del curso tuvimos nuestro primer "assignment", que consistió en analizar un poema de Emily Dickinson. Luego que nos dan el "assignment" tenemos seis días para escribir un ensayo de 500 palabras (en inglés, por supuesto). Lamentablemente, en esa semana no tuve mucho tiempo libre y cuando me senté a leer el poema me quedaban solo dos días. Sumado al hecho de que me resulta muy difícil comprender los poemas porque no estoy acostumbrada a leer poesía (en el poema I dwell in Possibility, que fue el primero que analizaron en el curso, Emily dice que ella "vive en la Posibilidad, una Casa mejor que la Prosa" pero yo no coincido con ella, me siento más cómoda en la casa de la Prosa), no sabía que escribir. Lo único que entendía era que Emily Dickinson sentía una gran sed de vivir y que se sentía embriagada por la vida y la naturaleza.
Para poder hacer el ensayo y entregarlo a tiempo no me quedó otra que buscar en internet varios análisis de este poema y sacar las cosas que más me gustaban de cada uno. Así fue que escribí este ensayo híbrido, una especie de Frankenstein ya que tiene pedacitos de aquí y de allá. Luego que entregué el ensayo, lo leyeron cuatro personas que están realizando el curso y lo comentaron. Los comentarios fueron bastante largos, algunos casi tanto como mi ensayo, y uno me dijo que aunque le parecía bien que hubiera hecho una investigación previa, hubiera sido mejor que no me contaminara con opiniones ajenas y hubiera escrito mi propia interpretación. La verdad es que yo creía que todos me iban a criticar por usar fuentes externas porque cuando leí los otros ensayos que me tocó comentar, vi que todos habían expresado sus interpretaciones personales (como la mayor parte del los "Modpoers" son profesores o poetas el nivel es altísimo). Entonces decidí que para el próximo "assignment "trabajaría de forma distinta. En vez de escribirlo los últimos días, comencé a prepararlo el primer día que lo asignaron y, además, me esforcé por hacerlo sola, sin buscar nada en internet. Más adelante podrán ver el resultado. Hoy les dejo el primer "assignment" (al principio están las consignas y el poema que había que analizar).
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| Emily Dickinson en 1846-47 |
Below is a poem by Emily Dickinson, known by its first line, "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 -- 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 --
In your short essay, do a close reading of this poem of 500 words. Use as a model the close readings done in the several filmed discussions of other poems by Dickinson. Your essay should address the poem's form, the poem's uses of shifting metaphor, and the extent to which the poem's meaning is open. For example, your essay might try to explain the 'story' Dickinson tells here, and focus on how that story is expressed. What happens to the speaker as the result of her inebriation? What does this inebriation have to do with the way the poem is written? Your essay might discuss (briefly) each line of the poem, or you might choose what you consider to be key lines, metaphors, or terms, and explain each fully.
Emily Dickinson’s Zest for Life
"I taste a liquor never brewed" is a poem written by the American writer Emily Dickinson. The poem consists of four four-line stanzas with alternating tetrameters and trimeters. The rhyme is ABCB but there is a slant rhyme in the first stanza (“Pearl” and “Alcohol”). This form, known as ballad, is typical of Dickinson’s verse.
Most of Dickinson’s poems describe a scene but this one is different since it describes a state of mind. In “I taste a liquor never brewed”, Dickinson describes an intoxicated unity of self and nature. The writer experiences a mystical state through her soul awareness and the state is so uplifting that she feels as if she had become intoxicated by drinking alcohol. She feels ecstasy, a state of intensely beautiful bliss because she has a zest for life and experience. She cannot stop drinking the Nature's beauty.
In the opening line of the first stanza, the poetess begins the extended metaphor of this poem. She says that she is experiencing a state of awareness that she has never felt before. She likens the experience to being drunk but her intoxication is not caused by a drink. The liquor never brewed must be a spiritual substance. The poetess refers to the Nature’s wine. She wants to drink and (experience) nature’s beauty. The “Pearl” would refer to the preciousness or rarity of the experience. Her intoxication is greater than if she had drunk the contents of "all the Vats upon the Rhine". She rejects what comes from vats on the Rhine because for Dickinson, her home surroundings are superior although their compass is small. It is important to remark that the poetess uses objects such as "liquor", "Tankards" and "Vats" to describe a feeling of ecstasy.
The second stanza mixes elements of nature with words related to intoxication (“Inebriate”, “Debauchee”, “Reeling”), which shows her love for the world around her. She claims that summer air makes her feel inebriated. Even the “Dew” makes her feel drunk. She has been drinking at “Inns of Molten Blue", as if the sky was a tavern from which the liquor flowed. The word "molten" gives us the sense of a fluid sky along with a feeling of dissolving into this sky, and it is also a symbol for the spiritual liquor being drunk.
In the third stanza, Dickinson compares herself to creatures of nature. She likens the bees and butterflies to fellow drinkers. The word landlord is a metaphor for God and she says that until the gods turn the bee out of the foxglove flower and the butterflies renounce the nectar she will go on enjoying nature’s abundance as a drunkard.
The final stanza can be associated with life, joy and indulgence. In this stanza, she has ascended into heaven and angels come to see this spiritual drunkard leaning against the sun. It seems that the saints envy her because she can experience the world she lives in and they can only watch.
Bibliography
Traducción al español: http://books.google.com.ar/books?id=NCnx7PMJO1gC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=poema+214+emily+dickinson&source=bl&ots=7BqxRMQLZb&sig=b2RJbmr-d6BjKYNpFkLrVCe0e14&hl=es&sa=X&ei=FfMYVJyXJOrJiwLZ34GYBQ&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=poema%20214%20emily%20dickinson&f=false
http://beamingnotes.com/2013/05/21/summary-and-analysis-of-i-taste-a-liquor-never-brewed-by-emily-dickinson/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_taste_a_liquor_never_brewed
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/e/emily-dickinsons-poems/the-poems/nature-scene-and-meaning
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/liquor.html
http://emilydickinsonnotes.wordpress.com/i-taste-a-liquor-never-brewed/
http://bllhmltt.com/words/2013/9/19/explication-i-taste-liquor-never-brewed-
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