Analysis of I taste a liquor never brewed

Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)



I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.

When the landlord turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove's door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!


Scheme XXXX XAXA XBXB XCBC
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 11010101 11101 11010101 11110 0101111 0111 10110101 111101 10110101 11011 1100111 111101 1111101 011101 110101 100101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 468
Words 86
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 94
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

26 sec read
580

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. more…

All Emily Dickinson poems | Emily Dickinson Books

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