A day by Emily Dickinson poem summary

Unit Two

Literature part (Poems)

A Day

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is the most eminent American poet. She was born in 1930 and died in 1886. She was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. However, she has been steadily gaining popularity through her posthumously published. She mostly writes about life and death. The poem 'A Day' is written about the beautiful day that leads innocent children from innocence to experience. In the poem, we can see the surface and deep meanings. There are many images and symbols are used to bring effects in the poem.

In the first stanza, the poet describes the beautiful scene of the rising sun. The scene of the rising sun is exciting and romantic, especially for the children. In the morning while the sun rises upon the earth it gives a really romantic scene. The rays of the sun look like ribbons. The golden light of the sun at first touches the top of steeples. The steeples are covered with a deep violet color like amethyst. The news of sunrise spreads like squirrels’ run. It means the light of the sun gently touches all the corners of the earth.

In the second stanza, we can see the beautiful description of morning where mountains remove their bonnets and look beautiful. Then the bird bobolink starts to sing-song in the happiness of the day. This makes a child aware of the day.

In the third stanza, the speaker seems unknown to the scene of sunset. But the speaker describes purple color steps where the children with golden color are climbing all the while. It is not clear where the children are going. They might be returning to their home from their school or somewhere else.

In the fourth stanza, these children climb till they reach the other side. It means their journey is not stopped until they reach their destination. On the way, they might visit a dominie (a religious person, clergyman). That dominie stops them with the evening bars. People can't go to heaven until God calls them. He puts an evening bar and leads the flock (a church congregation by the pastor) away. It means people die.

In the beginning part of two stanzas, the speaker is confident and romantic about the beauty of the sun but in the last two stanzas, the speaker is more serious and uncertain about the sunset. In the poem, the sunrise can be taken as the birth of a person, the innocent state of the people, and the happy mood of the speaker. But in the later part, the speaker is a more uncertain, sad, and experienced life and a bit religious. In the final part, takes the poet refers to the death of people. The poem is entirely based on the theme of life and death. The Dominie is presented as a symbol of the god. It is believed that people reach to the god after death. So the final stanza refers to the death of people.  In the last line 'Lead the flock away' means the god take the flocks (group of people) away from the earth to heaven.