« How the old Mountains drip with Sunset », Emily Dickinson

Résumé du document

Commentary of a Poem : « How the old Mountains drip with Sunset », Emily Dickinson (poem 291, c.1861)

Extraits

[...] Yet, beyond the mere expression of the inspiring power of the splendour of a sunset, Dickinson's poem touches (half mockingly, half seriously) on the difficulties for artists (including herself) to translate their inspirational fascination into words or pictures. Although painters and poets are often described as « wizards » who are able to express their « visions » in an artistic way, Dickinson suggests that « the Wizard sun » alone is able to stun the landscape with its magical illusions (the trees turn red/orange from the sunset). [...]

[...] It all enhances the sense of uniqueness of this sunset. Nature as a source of wonder The tone is one of awe as the speaker comes accross as not seeing something as beautiful in nature before. The literary devices that Dickinson uses for that purpose are : the word « How » as an exclamation, not as the introduction to a question ; powerfull images to match the magnificence of the sunset : fire imagery (« How the hemlocks burn »), imagery of nobility (« With a departing - Sapphire - feature - As a Duchess passed »), and -last but not least - supernatural imagery (« By the Wizard sun », l.4 ; « These are the Visions », l.21). [...]

[...] Dickinson describes alongside the poem the maturing and dynamic sunset, beginning as the sun lights up the wooded mountains until the night takes over. This chronological description is supported by a clear structure: the poem is broken into 6 stanzas of four lines each, alternating pentameters (five feet, most of them iambs: « By the wizard sun » ; « that I dare to tell ? » . ) and trochaic tetrameters (« How the mountains drip with sunset » ; «These are the Visions flitted Guido -»). [...]

[...] So the circle is back around : as the Gospel of John says, « it is finished ». Conclusion : In this poem, Emily Dickinson uses different litterary devices which convey the reader not only to admire the natural phenomena of a wonderful sunset and discuss the artistic process of creation, but also to meditate upon the cycle of life and death. She once defined poetry this way : « If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. [...]

[...] Studying this poem, I can say E.Dickinson leaves me feeling exactly this way, because she names so incisively those troubling and mixed emotions and perceptions which I often had contempling a sunset. [...]