Emily Dickinson Metaphors

Customarily, when looking back on 19th century American poetry it is dominated by men writing elaborate poems conveying a lesson, but Emily Dickinson defied all social taboos, creating some of the most renowned and notably pieces of literature. The expression of feeling is where all of the roots of Dickinson's poems originated, unconceived by her peers. As a poet, she lived recluse, for each poem was cultivated by Dickinson’s vivid imagination that knew no bounds, while aided by an excellent education that further expanded her knowledge. Paralleled to Emily Dickinson's life, “I Had Been Hungry All the Years,” published in 1944, is an influential poem, utilizing powerful poetic devices to convey the theme, that reality corrupts imagination,

Dickinson uses a variety of symbols to create an extended metaphor based around food. Starvation, which represents longing for affection and intimacy, is embedded throughout the poem to aid in forming the overall theme. Multiple metaphors and symbols help the reader to grasp the theme with relatable physical examples and comparisons. The renowned poet lived a life of solitude to preserve her imagination, but “I Had Been Hungry All the Years” reveals the internal struggle encountered from self-inflicted deprivation and outcomes from submission to the temptation. The opening line, also the title of the poem, reads “I had been hungry all the years,” which is a powerful metaphor, not describing the necessity for food, but rather a aspiration of longing for social interaction (Dickinson 1). The speaker is relaying an eagerness to have real intimacy, as one would describe an wish for food when hungry. The envisioning of intimacy is later found to be more pleasurable that the physical act, reflecting back to the theme, Additionally, “all the years” is indicating a “nagging and on-going” feeling that is not transitory (Wolfley). The speaker of the poem is conveying a habitual yearning, a constant desire. Following, in the poem Dickinson writes “My noon has come, to dine” a line which contains both a metaphor and symbol (Dickinson 2). Noon “represents mid-life" a momentous transitional point in one's existence, as opposed to twelve o’clock in the afternoon (Wolfley). Metaphorically in the line “dine” is a specific word that indicates now is the time for the author to receive affection, continuing the “central thought... expressed in the terminology of food” (Lefkowitz). A normal routine, of eating a meal at midday is quite natural for most, but the speaker is trying to avoid such a practice. As the poem progresses in the first stanza, the