A Day by Emily Dickinson (Symbols, Themes, Imagery, Summary, Analysis and Interpretation)- NEB Grade 12- English

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 About Poet

One of the most eminent American poets from the nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson’s (1830-1886) poetry was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town. These upbringings inculcated in her Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity. Dickinson and Walt Whitman are considered the founders of a uniquely American poetic voice. While Dickinson was extremely prolific as a poet her regularly enclosed poems in letters to friends she was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. However, she has been steadily gaining popularity through her posthumously published poems.

Poem

In her poem “A Day”, Dickinson, through the use of brilliant imageries and symbols, describes a beautiful day that leads the children from innocence to experience. 

‘A Day’ by Emily Dickinson is a lyrical poem describing sunrise and sunset. In a metaphysical sense, it also portrays the beauty of life and the uncertainty of death.

I’ll tell you how the sun rose, —

A ribbon at a time.

The steeples swam in amethyst,

The news like squirrels ran.


The hills untied their bonnets,

The bobolinks begun.

Then I said softly to myself,

“That must have been the sun!”


But how he set, I know not.

There seemed a purple stile

Which little yellow boys and girls

Were climbing all the while


Till when they reached the other side,

A dominie in gray

Put gently up the evening bars,

And led the flock away.


Analysis

"A Day" written by Emily Dickinson starts with a description of an unnamed speaker- a child about how the sun rises and the events that follow the phenomenon. The speaker exhibits various sceneries of birds, hills, and the sun. The poem might try to bring the childish gaze of the world and how the child enjoys the surroundings just like it appears into reality.

Describing nature becomes quite habitual for the child and it seems to be much more confidence in the task, especially describing the moment of sunrise. The child seems indifferent or uninterested to describe the setting sun, which symbolizes that its death is not a prominent topic as the child has got little knowledge in describing it.  


Literary Devices

Symbolism:

Like her other poem, "A Day" symbolizes the transition from life to death. According to the poem, human behaviors are connected to life and death along with after-death longing based on her religious perspective.  

Metaphor:

Sunrays- ribbons, yellow boys and girls

The Dominie in gray- religious connotation, can be God

Flock- humans

Evening bars- end of human's life

Simile:

The news like squirrels ran. (compare with like)

Personification:

In line 2, "steeple" has been personified and she says “Steeples”, like human beings, swim.

In line 5, "hills" remove their bonnets


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