Butterfly Shots

This is the part where Emily Dickinson is high on life. That was my first reaction, anyway.

Now's as good a time as any to say that, in response to question two, I kind of feel like the speaker is Emily Dickinson. It's not necessarily the case, but she just doesn't seem the type to write from another's perspective. She was sort of disturbed, I think, and she wrote poetry to express that in a healthy way. That's why I was surprised, though, by the optimistic tone this poetry seemed to take.

I had inferred that life was the never-brewed liquor of which she spoke. Some people said, more specifically, nature, which probably makes more sense but is less relatable, I feel. Most people just don't get that excited about nature, in my experience. I guess Emily Dickinson wasn't "most people."

As my dear friends Kahle and Christian have already pointed out, "Vats upon the Rhine" refer to wine which originates from the vineyards along the Rhine. Rhine wine. Aha. Perhaps, though, she is more excited about the flowing of the Rhine and the blooming/blossoming/whatever-the-grapes-do of the grapes. So the occasion (question four) is just an ordinary day's appreciation of nature.

I guess the theme (question seven) would have to be appreciation of nature and also maybe fear of judgment. Dickinson was agoraphobic by nature, so it's fitting that she mentions the "Saints" running to windows to watch her as she makes something of a fool of herself.

Also, the setting (question five) is outside during the daylight, which we know because of her "Leaning against the--Sun--." I have a severe distaste for her ending of poems with random dashes as though she just gave up on concluding her thoughts. Oh well. I interpreted that to be her sort of final detachment from reality in her never-brewed-liquor-induced tipsiness. It's as though she's falling up against the Sun because the world is spinning all around her.

"I tripped on my shoelace,
And I fell up.
Up to the roof tops,
Up over the town,
Up past the tree tops,
Up over the mountains,
Up where the colors
Blend into the sounds.
But I got me so dizzy
When I looked around,
I got sick to my stomach
And I threw down."

--Shel Silverstein