Wild Nights! Wild Nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile the winds
To a heart in port, —
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in Thee!
Leave a guest comment (subject to review)
Comments
1 - 5 of 5
-
From guest Lewis Jewell (contact)
I agree with Karen this poem for me is speaking of her despair and her longing for romance. I would say that the sea is not only where the adventures of life are, but it is where love is. It is where waves (other people's lives) caress, smash into and keep your vessel afloat. It is where everything is risked for the sake of living and loving. Where she lives, in port, is a very closed environment at risk from nothing, hence neither living nor loving. There are no waves caressing her vessel. I see the winds as the few friends in her life, who tried to tempt her back out to sea and to mix with other people. The lines 'Done with the compass, / Done with the chart!' the duality of which seem especially powerful to me, not only do they say she is done with the sea and is never going back out again. They also a hint that she yearns to let loose, lose all the safety of port and partake in a wild, uncontrolled romance. The final stanza is almost dream-like, to me. 'Rowing in Eden!' already images of paradise, of heaven gush through my mind. Then she does the peculiar thing of yearning to moor in the sea, if only for a night. She desperately wants to stand outside in the midst of the torrent of wild, uncontrolled romance (perhaps even just companionship would do, but the sexuality of the poem convinces me it is more than just friendship she yearns for) that is out there, although to her the sea would appear calm and wonderful compared to the cold isolated port in which she resides. Yet she knows she is unable to, the futile winds are here only link to the sea and they failed to tempt her out. Overall this poem is beautiful and extremely sad. I can see how people can read it as a romantic poem, and I'm not saying it isn't, but there is a lot more to this poem than appears at first glance. When I read this poem now, rather than read it at an extolled pace, I read it with Chopin's Nocturne No. 04 in the background and find the slower pace emphasises her desire to leave port, but her despair at being unable to do so. -
Wild Nights!
From guest Bronson (contact)
This is a very good poem that i think about giving my gurlfriend in her Christimas card....I feel that every that feels the same should do the same.....Forshow -
Wild NIghts!
From guest Karen (contact)
I think this poem speaks of Dickinson's despair, to her yearning for a wild romance in her life -
seems like she has a fantasy for the sea... her life restricted to just the land...
and so talks about the wild nights of sea like a fancy...
and as a heart in the port... she sees the winds as futile... even if the winds could be traced with a compass or chart...
again the third stanza says... the sea is happy like it is in eden...
and she is just a small land ... faraway from the sea... -
It's hard to imagine this prim Victorian spinster writing about Wild Nights! Wild Nights! I must say. She must have been an Arabian princess in the previous one.
-
very good
I like this and find it somewhat whimsicly romantic. I think our dear Emily had a hankering for some loving
-
I always liked this poem. It's beautifully done by an ingenius writer.
-
it sounds like she wanted a more adventurous life. i liked this poem a lot.
Adding your comment:
1 - 5 of 5
