A
Book
Emily
Dickinson
There
is no frigate like a book
To
take us lands away,
Nor
any coursers like a page
Of
prancing poetry.
This
traverse may the poorest take
Without
oppress of toll;
How
frugal is the chariot
That
bears a human soul!
Impressively
rigorous, as ever, Emily Dickinson choses an escort vessel with navy
associations on her poetic journey to distant lands. In eight short
lines, galumphing along with eight then six strokes, she runs as
swift as the prancing horse of galloping alliteration.
Nor
any coursers like a page
Of
prancing poetry.
She asserts that
this journey to distant lands - This
traverse
– is available to anyone, even the poor, because it costs nothing.
She may be interested to know that
for a
hardback edition of her collected poems, the reader will suffer an
oppress of toll
of thirty US
dollars, with paperback editions from one to ten US dollars on
Amazon.com, in her home country, the United States of America.
Perhaps she is
making a plea for libraries and if so, all writers and readers could
support that, these being days when libraries are under threat,
especially in wealthy countries.
Her final transport
offers her frugal delights as it bears her soul in a chariot,
possibly pulled by the coursers she invoked earlier.
'Frugal' is good. It
echoes 'frigate'. Good also is 'prancing'. The horses jump from the
page.
This is a punchy,
driven poem, where active alliteration and clever near-rhymes
away/poetry
toll/soul
and a set of
vehicles
frigate/coursers/chariot
speed us on a
soulful journey. Without leaving the comfort of our chairs.
This is ideal
traverse for a reclusive like
Emily Dickinson, crossing the world with her books, while staying at
home at the same time.
The poem is a
'transport of delight', coursing into the reader's veins. All aboard!
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