Potpourri Blog Post #2

I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed by Emily Dickinson

EXTENDED METAPHOR: is a metaphor that is developed over the course of multiple lines, details, paragraphs, etc.

 I enjoyed this poem a lot and actually understood it. The whole poem is an extended metaphor. I saw the main message as the speaker getting drunk on nature. They simply cannot get enough of it and want to drink in all the good beauty that God has put on this planet for us to enjoy. There are many images in the poem that help to describe this sense of intoxication the speaker feels when outside. Right of the bat, the reader can tell that this is not a literal poem and the speaker is not actually getting drunk. It starts out, "I taste a liquor never brewed--" (Dickinson). This shows that the whole poem is about something that is not actually a liquor because it has not actually physically been brewed. Then the speaker goes on to describe the fact that their glass is full of clouds (Pearl) and that not any vat anywhere could brew such an alcohol. Another image is the foxglove turning away the bees and the butterflies renouncing their drams. So, even when the actual nature is done drinking everything in, the speaker "shall but drink the more!" (Dickinson).