I Started Early - Took My Dog by Emily Dickinson Flashcards
Context:
- Emily Dickinson was a Puritan Christian and regularly visited the Church, perhaps influencing her to use common meter and balladic form.
- Heavily influenced by the Romantic movement and the American Transcendentalist movement, inspiring her to use highly metaphorical, vividly descriptive language to portray overflowing emotion.
- Dickinson was a recluse for most of her life and led a sequestered lifestyle, staying away from the public; perhaps this is reflected in the overwhelming emotions expressed by the speaker during a simple walk by the sea.
Form:
- Lyrical ballad
- 6 quatrains
- ABCB rhyme scheme
- Ballads tell stories; this poem recounts the adventure of the speaker
- Dickinson influenced by hymns which used the same form; perhaps adds a special religious sense to this poem, exemplifying its impact on the speaker
Meter:
- Common meter, influenced by hymns at Church
- Alternating between iambic tetrameter and trimeter
Rhyme Scheme:
- ABCB
- Slant rhymes towards the end, symbolising the speaker’s pleasure and detachment from her senses
- Slant rhymes also emphasise the end of her sexual awakening
Structure:
- The tension seems to rise until the climactic point towards the middle, when the speaker is overwhelmed by the “sea”.
- The tension falls as the speaker retreats to the familiar “Solid Town”
- This rising and falling tension means that the structure exemplifies the speaker’s intense emotions at her sexual awakening
dog:
Symbol of innocence; the fact that it is never mentioned again perhaps highlights the loss of the speaker’s sexual virginity
KEY QUOTE: The tone immediately shifts to a fantastical, mesmerising atmosphere in the first stanza:
“The mermaids in the basement came out to look at me”
KEY QUOTE: The ropes are personified as beckoning the speaker to have an adventure, exemplifying the allure of the sea:
“Frigates […] extented Hempen Hands”
KEY QUOTE: The speaker is depicted as a mouse, exemplifying her feeling of vulnerability, contrasting with the mighty power of the sea, furthering the sense of adventure:
“presuming me to be a mouse”
KEY QUOTE: The sea rushes up past the speaker, up her body, depicting her overwhelmed emotions at this sexual encounter, amplified by the polysyndeton and anaphora:
“the tide went past my simple shoe - and past my apron - and my belt - and past my bodice”
KEY QUOTE: Climactic point:
“He would eat me up as wholly as a dew upon a dandelion’s sleeve - and then - I started”
KEY QUOTE: The sea pursues the speaker, creating a sense of adrenaline and fear as she retreats from this sexual experience:
“He - He followed - close behind”
KEY QUOTE(S): Depiction of temptation of the sea, through images of value:
- “his silver heel”
- “my shoes would overflow with Pearl”
KEY QUOTE: The speaker returns to familiarity:
“until we met the Solid Town”
Summary
This poem is an interesting one in that it can be interpreted in two distinct ways; firstly, it may simply be an intense account of an adventure that the reclusive speaker has, attracted by the mystery of the sea, while alternatively, it can be seen as a sexual awakening, with the “mighty” sea being personified as a man dominating our “little” speaker. The vivid use of metaphors accentuates the extent to which the speaker has been moved and overwhelmed by this experience - sexual or not.