269 (Emily Dickinson)

Wild Nights – Wild nights!

Where I with thee

Wild nights should be

Our luxury!

Futile – the winds –

To a Heart in port –

Done with the Compass –

Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden –

Ah – the Sea!

Might I but moor – tonight –

In thee!

Helen Vendler’s analysis of Dickinson’s poetry was interesting, she notes that the arrangement of the poem obscures the basic construction as rhyming couplets and removes any sense of flow. I agree that it removes any sense of fluidity but I believe that it allows for the poem to become more of an ode as if it was a speech made to the world around. Due to the breaks of the lines within the stanza’s, it creates a sort of rythmic pattern that follows a 10 5 10 5 syllables per lines enforcing a form of musicality and charm. I do agree with how Vendler states that with the pauses thus created, it creates an opportunity to pause and evaluate its own emotions and language.

Furthermore, the use of punctuation in the poem with exclamation marks and cesurae to create tension and excitement. The use of exclamation marks on “Wild nights!”, “Our luxury!”, “Done with the Chart !” and “In thee!” seem to prompt a feeling of excitement and alertness to express sentiments and thoughts. This is then balanced out with the cesurae to offer pauses in the poem, and as mentioned earlier push for an opportunity to reflect in the midst of high levels of tension. The cesurae allow the poem to be read as if it was following a stream of consciousness with sparks of high levels of energy which are followed with a pause to showcase a thought or moment of reflection. Vendler notes that the exclamations evoked in the poem prompts ecstacy which is followed by thought of the unsatisfactory absence of her lover. Showing a more in depth analysis of the idea of excitement and reflection which I mentioned earlier.