The poem "A Day" written by Emily Dickinson is told through the perspective of an innocent child. The little child confidently and excitedly describes sunrise at the beginning of the poem. However, as he further describes the day he gets confused about the happenings that take place after the sunrise.
About the poet 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 till 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, some poems have multiple
stanzas without any breaks between them.
Short summary of the poem A Day
The poem opens with a typical morning’s
description by a child. The speaker, an unnamed child, is excited on 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.
Detailed 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 the 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 day’s events, he is not as confidents 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 reserved
(गम्à¤ीर). The child’s confidence disappears because
he/she doesn’t know much about 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.
Some important ideas to note 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.
A Day Emily Dickinson Class 12 Exercise and Question Answer
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
Reference to the context