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A Day, composed by Emily Dickinson, is a poem that
describes a beautiful day that leads children from innocence to experience.
The poem seems to describe a day for children. This poem is taken from the
class 12 English textbook. The following summary, analysis, and exercise will
help the readers for understanding the text. For the readers’ convenience,
the original poem, A Day, by Emily Dickinson has also been mentioned.
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{getToc} $title={Table of Contents} Summary and analysis of A Day by Emily Dickinson
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About Emily Dickinson and her
writing style
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet and short
story writer who wrote close to 1800 poems, many of which were published
after her death in 1890. She lived most of her life in Amherst,
Massachusetts. Though she was not widely known during her lifetime, her work
has since become well respected and has even been characterized as the
typical poetry of the American experience by renowned poet Robert Frost.
Emily Dickinson was a prolific poet, who was once described
as the Greatest Poet in America. She lived her life in seclusion, staying
inside her father's house for much of her time. From 1847 to 1886, she wrote
1,789 poems, less than a third was published during her lifetime. Emily spent most of her time reading and
writing poetry.
It is said that she even went without food or sleep while
doing so. Most people thought she was eccentric because she chose not to
socialize. Emily Dickinson died on May 15th, 1886 at age 55 from Bright's
disease (now known as Nephritis). Her death marked an end to one of
literature's greatest poets whose work remains unparalleled to date.
Emily's poetry is its unusual structure. She wrote in short
lines with no punctuation marks, almost every poem has at least one line that
runs across more than one page, and some poems have multiple stanzas without
any breaks between them.
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A short summary of A Day
The poem opens with a typical morning description by a
child. The speaker, an unnamed child, is excited about seeing birds, hills,
and the rising sun. However, as the speaker goes on describing the day
further, he shows less confidence in describing the events and situations
that the sunrise follows.
In her poem “A Day”, Dickinson, through the use of
brilliant imageries and symbols, describes a beautiful day that leads the
children from innocence to experience.
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A complete summary of the poem A
day
The poem begins with an unnamed boy, the narrator,
excitedly describing how the sun rises. The child, who seems innocent,
assumes the sun’s rays as ‘ribbons’. The speaker’s excitement to talk about
sunrise shows his eagerness to learn about worldly happenings.
In the second stanza, the persona describes the events
which take place after sunrise. The sun brightens the top of “Hills” and
“Bobolinks” (a species of blackbirds) begins to sing. The second stanza
highlights the beauty of nature around us. As the speaker comes to describing
the day’s events, he is not as confident as he was in the first stanza. The
speaker’s confusion is clear in this stanza when he/she exclaims, “That must
have been the Sun!” This particular line indicates that the speaker is a
child because no adult would need much description to identify the sun or its
rising.
In the third stanza, the subject matter shifts from sunrise
to sunset, and the speaker’s tone from excited to reserve. The child’s
confidence disappears because he/she doesn’t know much about the sunset.
In the fourth/last stanza, the poet’s faith comes to light.
The last stanza uses Christian references like ‘dominie in gray’ and ‘flock’
to show the poet’s own view about death. Here, ‘dominie in gray’ indicates
“God” and “flock” means human beings. The poet believes that God leads human
beings after they die.
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Some important ideas in the poem “A
Day”
“A ribbon at a time” means that the sun rises slowly and
its ray appears in what it seems to look like ribbons.
The words ‘swam’ indicates that the steeples were covered
in sunlight.
‘The news like squirrels ran’ means that the news of
sunrise spread very fast.
Through the expression ‘The hills untied their bonnets’ we
understand that the event begins in the morning. It also tells that the hills
are covered with snow or there must have been cloud on the hills.
‘Bobolinks’ is a species of American blackbirds. The black
birds began to sing as the sunlight appeared on the earth.
Literally, the poem is about a day’s description through
the eyes of an innocent child. However, metaphorically, the poem is about
life and death, movement from freedom to captivity and so on.
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Understanding the poem
Answer the following questions.
a. What kind of day do you like: rainy, sunny or foggy?
Why?
b. How does the sun tell us about different stages of a
day?
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About the writer [In details]
One of the most eminent American poets from the nineteenth
century, Emily Dickinson’s (1830-1886) poetry was heavily influenced by the
Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of
the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town.
These upbringings inculcated in her Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative
approach to Christianity. Dickinson and Walt Whitman are considered the
founders of a uniquely American poetic voice. While Dickinson was extremely
prolific as a poet her regularly enclosed poems in letters to friends she was
not publicly recognized during her lifetime. However, she has been steadily
gaining popularity through her posthumously published poems.
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A Day by Emily Dickinson [Original Poem]
I’ll tell you how the sun rose,
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.
The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
“That must have been the sun!”
But how he set, I know not.
There seemed a purple stile
Which little yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while
Till when they reached the other
side,
A dominie in gray
Put gently up the evening bars,
And led the flock away.
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Glossary A Day [Word meaning]
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steeples (n.):
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tall towers with a spire on top, rising above the roof of a
church
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amethyst (n.):
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purple precious stone used in making jewellery
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bonnets (n.):
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hats tied with strings under the chin, worn by babies and
women
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bobolinks (n.):
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songbirds with large, somewhat flat heads, short necks and
short tails
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dominie (n.):
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a school master (Scottish); a pastor or clergyman (US)
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stile (n.):
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a set of steps that help people to climb over a fence or
wall, especially in the village
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Question answer of the poem A Day
Answer the following questions.
a. How does the poet describe the morning sun in the first
stanza?
b. What does the line ‘The news like squirrels ran’ mean?
c. What do you understand by the line ‘The hills untied
their bonnets’?
d. Is the speaker watching the morning sun? Why? Why not?
e. How does the sun set?
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Reference to the context
a. What, according to the speaker, is a day?
b. What purpose does the hyphen in the first line serve in
the poem?
c. What makes this poem lyrical and sonorous? Discuss.
d. Who are the target audience of the speaker? Why?
e. The poem seems to describe a day for children. How would
the adult people respond to this poem? Discuss this poem with your
parents/guardians and write the answer based on their responses.
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Reference beyond the text
a. Observe your surroundings of one fine morning and write
a poem based on your own experience.
b. Write a personal essay on A Day in the School.
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