1. Form and Structure
  2. Theme and Interpretations
  3. Repeated Clusters
  4. Free Verse Form
    1. Written in first person point of view. The author is also speaking in this poem.
  5. Symbolism
  6. Personification
  7. Simile
  8. Metaphor
  9. About the Author
  10. Literary Devices
  11. Lyric poems usually express personal or emotional feelings and they often have rhyming schemes.
    1. The author expresses her personal feelings about the wonders of nature in this poem by stating multiple lines that reference to nature itself. Ex. Stanza 2, Line 1 & Line 2
  12. The poem is broken down into 4 stanzas with 4 lines in each.
  13. Consists of an unnatural rhyme scheme. Therefore, the author is not exactly following the rules of rhyming.
    1. Lines 2 and 4 in each stanza have a similar rhyme scheme.
    2. This poem is also written in '8-6-8-6' common hymn meter form.
  14. Poem does not consist of a title.
    1. Therefore we can identify this poem by the first line which in this case is "I'll tell you how the sun rose".
  15. The poem can be broken into 2 parts.
    1. The first 2 stanzas describe the sunrise.
    2. The last 2 stanzas describe the sunset.
  16. Imagery
  17. The word 'Steeples' and 'Dominie' represent religious images in stanzas 1 and 4.
    1. The dominie can be shown as collecting the yellow children away to the after-world as they climb over the steps (purple stiles). At this point you can visualize the color of the sunset darkening and night falling. The imagery here is very dark.
  18. "The steeples swam in amethyst" Stanza 1, Line 3
    1. A church is an object that symbolizes religion. Asides from that, the church cannot swim in the color amethyst. Since it is an object it cannot perform the human task of swimming in a color.
  19. "The hills untied their bonnets" Stanza
    1. A bonnet is a hat that women would wear back in the old days. A hill is an object, therefore, it cannot perform the human task of untying a specific type of hat.
  20. 'Steeples' and 'Dominie' symbolize religion.
    1. Steeples means church and dominie means clergyman. Both these sentences symbolize religion because in Stanzas 3 and 4, the dominie takes the children over the steps that they climb which we can assume is the afterlife.
      1. A dominie can also symbolize the calling of the god. Once again it is shown in the poem when the clergyman collects and leads the children back to the afterlife.
  21. Sunrise and sunset can symbolize birth and death.
    1. One of the possible themes of this poem has to do with birth and death. Therefore, sunrise can symbolize birth because they both relate in the sense that the sunrise goes up which feels positive and vice versa for the sunset. Sunrise means light and brightness which birth feels like. Sunset provides darkness and goes down, which is similar to death.
  22. "News like squirrels ran" Stanza 1, Line 4
    1. This is a simile because the word like is used to compare news and squirrels. It is comparing the speed at which news spread over the place to the speed of squirrels. Therefore we can assume that the news spreads very fast.
  23. "A ribbon at a time" Stanza 1, Line 2
    1. This is sentence is a metaphor because the line is comparing the suns rays crossing through the sky each time with a single ribbon.
  24. Alliteration
  25. "Steeples swam" Stanza 1, Line 3 "Bobolinks begun" Stanza 2, Line 2
    1. These are both alliterations because both pairs of words have a repetition of similar sounds.
  26. Theme
    1. One of the possible themes for this poem is the wonders of nature.
      1. Throughout the course of this poem, the author begins with describing the sunrise and ends with describing the sunset. Emily Dickinson uses many reference to nature in order to describe the process of the sunrise and sunset.
      2. In stanzas 1 and 2, the author mainly describes the sunrise. In stanza 1, line 2, the poem states "A ribbon at a time" which means a ray of sun is forming through the sky one by one. This is a great description of the sunrise. In stanza 2, lines 1 and 2, the author says "The hills untied their bonnets" and "The bobolinks begun". This is where the reference to nature steps in to describe the sunrise. The light reaches as far as the hills and birds come out to sing.
      3. Now we get into the second half of the poem which include stanzas 3 and 4. When the author mentions the children climbing over the stiles in stanza 3, we can simply interpret that as the kids going home after a days worth of hard work. As a reader you can interpret that the start of the day is over, and the sunset is just beginning. In stanza 4, the the dominie collects the children and leads them away and darkness slowly beckons. At this point in time the sun has finally gone down and night has begun.
  27. Theme
  28. Another possible theme for this poem is the fast speed at which the circle of life goes.
    1. The poem starts off in the first stanza with the sun rising which can be interpreted as birth. This is a possible symbolism as shown in the literary devices category. The continuing lines in stanza 1 describe the awakening of new life. In the second stanza, the birds begin to sing in joy and the hills are beginning to shine. All in all, the first 2 stanzas describe the awakening and/or birth of a new life.
    2. The second half of the poem consists of stanzas 3 and 4 which is all about the sunset. Therefore if sunrise symbolizes birth, then sunset can symbolize death. The imagery fits in very well with this theme all in all due to the bright light which interprets birth at the beginning and then the darkness which interprets death at the end. In stanza 3, it mentions that children covered in the yellow light climb up the stiles (stairs) and in stanza 4, the clergyman collects them and leads them away. Knowing that 'dominie' can symbolize the calling of a god we can interpret that the children are climbing to heaven and the clergyman is coming to collect them and bring them to the afterlife. At this point of the poem, the sunset has taken place and things are beginning to get very dark which fits in very well with the interpretation of death. All in all, the poem gives the reader an idea of how fast the circle of life goes by.
  29. Repeated Imagery of Nature
    1. Throughout the poem the author has constantly referenced nature in order to describe the sunrise and sunset. For example Stanza 1, Line 2 & 3; Stanza 2, Line 1 & 2.
    2. Throughout the poem, there is also a repeated image of the light and the sun. Every line in each stanza is used to describe the sun and light is either gradually appearing or fading out.
  30. Emily Dickinson
    1. The author wrote this poem in 1861.
    2. Emily Dickinson lived in Amherst, Massachusetts in the United States. Given this, she was an American poet. She was born on December 10, 1830 and passed away in the year 1860.
    3. She lived mostly an introverted and reclusive life. Emily Dickinson also studied in Amherst Academy for 7 years and she ended up admiring many poets such as Robert and Elizabeth Barett Browning along with many others.
    4. Upon her death, her family discovered approximately 1800 of her poems.
  31. Influences
    1. We can assume that Emily always woke up early every morning to witness the beauty of the sunrise. The author must have loved the outdoors given the amount of references to nature. There are many people who died in Emily's life and most of those people encouraged Emily to become a poet. That could be a possible reasoning behind why her poem can be interpreted as life and death.