Poets Light but Lamps by Emily Dickinson

The Poets light but Lamps —

Themselves — go out —

The Wicks they stimulate

If vital Light

 

Inhere as do the Suns —

Each Age a Lens

Disseminating their

Circumference —

“Poets Light but Lamps” by Emily Dickinson is a free verse poem organized in two sets of quatrains. Dickinson begins the poem by stating that as poets provide the energy to light up the world around them with optimism and sanguinity, they lose a part of themselves in the process. They play the role of wicks of candles, which tend to diminish as they give off bright light. She then proceeds to compare poets with suns and elicits that as new eras come and go, a new perspective of viewing this light emerges.

Since this is a free verse poem, there is no particular rhyme scheme or traditional meter present in the poem. Nonetheless, one of the things that catches the eye immediately in this poem is the uncanny usage of punctuation. The first word of every single line is capitalized, and there are no periods or commas seen anywhere throughout the poem. There are also no particular sentence structures, but it is very obvious that Dickinson has utilized enjambment from line 4 to line 5. This lack of traditional grammar and meter helps the readers focus more on apprehending the meaning and theme of the poem rather than the form. The adoption of enjambment assists the readers’ eyes flow from one line to the next in a smooth manner along with introducing a novel idea that still shares a theme with the previous one. Dickinson also employs caesura in line 2 along with end stops in line 1, 2, 5 and 8. The employment of caesura helps separate two ideas in the same line. Since Dickinson has not used any punctuation in this poem, the usage of caesura and the end stops aid in creating an illusion that some form of punctuation still exists.

Along with these devices related to the form of the poem, there is also a slight presence of imagery. Dickinson adopts a few sensory words, such as light, lamps, and suns to create an impression of brightness. Metaphor is also employed as Dickinson compares the poets with wicks of candles and the sun. This adoption of metaphors assists in conveying the theme of the poem in a rather artistic fashion. Instead of simply stating that poets supply the energy to light up their surroundings with hopefulness and joy, Dickinson associates poets with wicks and suns to help better communicate her idea. All of these complex and intricate poetic devices come together at the end and help apprehend the significance of the poem in a simpler sense.