8/14/2019 Jessica Villasana June 29, 2009 Lewis, EnG 1302

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Jessica Villasana

June 29, 2009

Lewis, ENG 1302

Emily Dickinson and a Drunkard: A study in Contrast

Dickinson compares her feelings toward natural beauty to that of a drunkard's

sentiments toward his favorite drink in the poem "I taste a liquor never brewed."

Although she is not speaking of literal liquor, her poem suggests that drinking in her fill

of nature in it's simplest form has the same inebriating effects. She names the 'pubs'

one can visit, names some of her 'liquors' of choice, and tells the reader how such a

brew can affect one who chooses to drink of it.

The "inns of Molten Blue" Dickinson frequents is what she's named the sky. It's at

this tavern of nature that she "reels" through her summer days, as a drunkard would

spend reeling through his nights at a tavern, drinking in the wonder of the summer

season. She's not the only one getting a 'buzz' from nature:

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee

Out of the Foxglove's door--

When Butterflies--renounce their "drams"--

I shall but drink the more!

Even the insects flitting from flower to flower are sharing in the serum-filled celebration.

The bumble-bee himself got 'thrown' out of the Foxglove flower for drinking too much!

She tells the reader she is an "inebriate of Air," and a "Debauchee of Dew,"

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