Emily Dickinson's Poem 'I' Ll Tell You How The Sun Rose

Emily Dickinson divides her poem “I'll tell you how the Sun rose” into a section about the sunrise and a section about the sunset. For many, the rising Sun brings a new day and new opportunities; the setting Sun reflects the individual’s desire to rest from their busy lives. By looking at the Sun, the speaker evaluates nature and its significance. Through her first person persona, Dickinson reveals the corruptive nature of society that contrasts the bringer of life that is nature itself.

The speaker boldly begins by addressing the reader to tell them “how the Sun rose.” Her boldness does not come from controversial words or claims; instead, her confidence makes her a bold, courageous speaker that compels the reader to listen to her tale. By capitalizing “Ribbon” in the next line, she emphasizes the individual rays of the Sun expanding. The speaker shifts

from describing the sunrise to its impact on the earth. The mark of the Sun can be seen as steeples, tall, religious buildings, “swam in Amethyst.” The beautiful purple hue symbolizes the peace and calm feeling the Sun shares. By swimming in Amethyst, the buildings of the earth bathe in the Sun’s protection.
As the Ribbons extend outward, they carry the news of the sunrise. Even though her simile compares and emphasizes the speed of the Sun’s rays, the image of playful Squirrels racing around parallels with how the Sun wakes up and creates life. Similarly, the Bonnets that the Hills untie are the flowers and plants that blossom and reveal their true beauty to the warm caress of the Sun. Her imagery lightly implies that bonnets restrict women as it restricts their hair. Women, like the Hills, should be able to express their most beautiful and natural forms by freeing themselves from their bonnets.
The Bobolinks that she mentions are North American songbirds. Strangely, the speaker separates the subject from the verb with a dash and fails to provide an object for the verb. In doing so, she emphasizes that the birds have “begun” something as the Sun rose. Amazingly, an individual Bobolink may fly a total distance equal to four to five times the circumference of the world. The rising of the Sun symbolizes the beginning of the Bobolink’s daily journey. In addition, the Bobolinks symbolize freedom due to their polygynous nature, singing ability, and soaring adventures. As the rays flood the land with light and warmth, the Sun rising brings hope and life to world. Finally, she explains the awe that she felt amid everything as she realizes that “That must have been the Sun!” The steeples and the Hills that she describes could very well be on the opposite side of the world; thus, her proclamation emphasizes the immense power of the sunrise.
Suddenly, she shifts the direction of the poem by now focusing on the sunset. Immediately, the tone of the poem shifts as the once confident speaker seems uncertain. Interestingly, the dashes, now, give the reader perspective of the speaker, as if she also pauses to think before acknowledging her uncertainty. She describes a stile, a set of steps to get over a fence, as purple. Unlike the peaceful Amethyst, this purple is usually associated with power and independence. To the children, the stile is a part of their journey and adventure, especially if they do not know what is on the other side. In addition, the children are Yellow with a capital ‘Y,’ emphasizing their cheerfulness and innocence as they, like the squirrels earlier, frolic and play around. Like the yellow Sun, the children also have their own significance on the world.
Unfortunately, on the other side waits society dragging them out of their worlds.

In contrast with the joyful Yellow, The Grayness of the Dominie, a schoolmaster or pastor, highlights the bleakness and boredom the speaker associates adults with. Furthermore, the Dominie putting up “the evening Bars” parallels the setting of the Sun. He bars out freedom, what the Sun brought to the world earlier. The gentleness of the action reflects the lack of guilt or thought the Dominie has in stealing the freedom; it is an everyday occurrence to him. Finally, he leads them away. Suddenly, they are not children anymore; they are a flock. Like sheep, they lack individual decision making skills and rely on the shepherd to guide their lives. The speaker does not even close the poem with a period and leaves the reader wondering where the Dominie is herding them. The once confident individual who tells the tale of the Sun can only watch the situation from afar and cannot stop the progression. If sunrise represents freedom and life coming from the hands of nature, sunset represents them leaving by the hands of

society.
The first three quatrains follow a 7, 6, 7, 8 syllable pattern. Ironically, amid the bleakness of the sunset and the loss of freedom, the final quatrain returns to the comfortable hymnal meter pattern of 8, 6, 8, 6. Similarly, the first stanza jars the audience with its lack of rhyme, but the following three stanzas all return to the comfortable rhyme scheme. Dickinson’s paradoxical structure ironically makes the audience feel like the loss of freedom in the last stanza is correct. In reality, even if the flock is most comfortable with social rules and structure, nature did not intend individuals to follow that path.
The speaker’s use of past tense to describe the Sun reveals hints about the identity of the unspecified persona. In the first half of the poem, the speaker explains that the Sun begins the daily journey of the Bobolinks. Furthermore, Dickinson implies that the Sun begins the journeys of all creatures on Earth. Indeed, the Sun plays a major role in all of the lives of Earth’s many inhabitants; all eaten food begins with the sun providing energy for photosynthesis. Like everyone else, the Sun began the life and journey of the speaker. However, the use of past tense gives the reader that the speaker is on the older and wiser side of the spectrum. It almost sounds remorseful. By referencing the children in the second half of the poem, the speaker attempts to connect with the newer generation and the new crop of life. She wants to protect their innocence and knows that their future is not certain, but she cannot. She, like the Dominie, is also integrated into society and abides to its rules. The journey she began with the Sun has become a past, and the poem is a reflection of that longing to return. The reader hears echoes of her young self as she softly tells herself “That must have been the Sun!” and is awed by the Sun. Unfortunately, the setting Sun symbolizes the end of her journey. Hopefully, she can escape society’s corruption at the very end and leave with nature as she began.