Showing posts with label Alcohol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alcohol. Show all posts

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I taste a liquor never brewed

Emily Dickinson had a thing for dashes and arbitrary capitalization. It is obnoxious. Anyway, this'll be a bit of a combo between question 10 and question 14. First off, it is extremely helpful to know what "the Rhine" refers to. It is a river that passes through most of Europe, including Germany. Now, this particular river is famous for its various vineyards and wineries built right alongside it. And I hardly think it's a stretch to say that the Germans are pretty good at making alcohol. So when the speaker says that not all the vats upon the Rhine yield such an alcohol, she is literally saying that this particular "alcohol" (which is probably not actually alcohol) is better than any brew of human design. I declare it to be an effective allusion. Nextly, there is some pretty intriguing imagery, and I think it all seems to flow along a similar thread. Most of the images have to do with nature: Inebriate of Air, Debauchee of Dew, summer days, Molten Blue, drunken bee, butterflies, and the sun. This ultimately implies that the speaker can get "drunk" off of nature. Literally, she finds nature, either dew or air or sky, to be the most intoxicating experience imaginable. She has such love for nature that she says she will never stop, even when bees and butterflies have had their fill, she will keep going (third stanza) until she need not drink anymore (fourth stanza).
"I think you've had quite enough of that nature, Ms. Dickinson."
"I think YOU'VE had enough! *falls off tree stump*