Search This Blog

04 October 2011

Have you got a Brook in your little heart

Have you got a Brook in your little heart,
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so—

And nobody knows, so still it flows,
That any brook is there,
And yet your little draught of life
Is daily drunken there—

Why –  look out for the little brook in March,
When the rivers overflow,
And the snows come hurrying from the hills,
And the bridges often go—

And later, in August it may be,
When the meadows parching lie,
Beware, lest this little brook of life,
Some burning noon go dry!
                                                                   - F 94 (1859)  136

Rather than still waters running deep, Dickinson presents us with an image of a “little heart” with not a river but a Brook. It’s flowers are “bashful”, and so delicate and tremulous a place it is that even the birds blush to drink there and “shadows tremble.” If that weren’t enough, it can get swollen to bursting in the floods of spring—its “bridges often go” – and in late summer it might very well dry up altogether.
            The poet asks the reader directly whether or not she has a little brook of her own, implying that some people don’t have this lifespring. Perhaps they just plod along lifelessly, or perhaps they have a less vulnerable source of life. Brook people get easily overwhelmed with floods of emotion or wither away without any life-giving water to replenish it. Maybe river people keep a more even keel.
            I don’t find this one of Dickinson’s more successful poems. The first line puts me on the spot: Am I alive enough, do I have such a lovely spot inside me? Yet by the end of the poem I’m questioning the value of such a vulnerable source for a “little draught of life.” Perhaps the key word is “little.” A little heart requires only a little “draught of life.” The voice itself is little and bashful, opening with that timid-sounding question. Several phrases are inverted in service of the rhyme, and this always strikes me as lazy. Dickinson doesn’t need to do it in other poems but here we have “so still it flows”  and “the meadows parching lie.”
            The meter and rhyme, however, move the poem along at a nice, bubbling-brook pace. Several long “o” words and rhymes provide a nice open feel: blow, so, nobody knows, flows, overflow, go. The  meter is a charming combination of iambs and anapests: “And nobody knows, so still it flows” can be read as iamb, anapest, iamb, iamb. Similar patterns are seen in the 9th and 15th lines.
            It seems likely to me that Dickinson is writing about the source of her poetry. She wrote her poems alone in her room and no one knew how very many she wrote. Her sister and life-long friend were amazed at the quantity. Sometimes she might be flooded with creativity, but she was always aware of the fragility of it all. She knew very well that without a well spring or rain, her poetry would “go dry.”

43 comments:

  1. Hello
    Congratulation for your beautiful writings.
    Please let me know, what does Emily mean by "When the meadows parching lie"??
    I don't understand this part.

    Thanks,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It means "when the meadows are parched" (very dry, as they would be in late summer). The sentence would more grammatically read: "When the meadows lie parching".

      Delete
  2. Your comment on the brook being the source of her poetry and her creativity very insightful. It didn't strike me. I too, was confused, by this poem in the fashion that it begins with the delicious promise of introspection but quickky dwindles away. And then, I thought of another interpretation.

    But, for me, the river represents any kind of ideals that may have once held close. Perhaps, in the avalanche of life, these ideals were ignored and tossed aside on the altar of pragmatic necissity. That's probably why she says 'draught of life'. To indicate that altough the ideals have been sacrificed, deep down we still allow ourselves a secret visit to them every now and then. It would explain why she says no one knows it's there by virtue of it's stillness. We hardly live by those ideals anymore so perhaps others wouldn't suspect they were ever there.

    I did not understand her references to March. It's wholly plausible they're references to the climate at that place at that time. But perhaps they represent teenage and old age respectively? In our adolescent teen years, our values go through turmoil and change. Perhaps this is what she means by snow falling and the bridges being crushed. And in the cynicism of old age we lose them entirely. This is why she says the brook may dry out then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While Spring traditionally is linked to youth, I think here March refers to the waterways swollen by snow melt. A little brook could well become a river and overwhelm its banks.

      I think you're on to something, though, with the ideals. They are certainly part of the wellspring of life, though as you say, they may become more subterranean over time.

      Delete
  3. What do you mean by, the bridges often go?
    In the line-
    And the snows come hurrying from the hills,
    And the bridges often go.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I ruminated the poem. It is exhilarating.
    But I couldn't get the moral of the poem.
    So please tell me the message of the poem. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Do you have a private little brook that no one knows about -- that you can go to to drink from its waters and be refreshed? You would worry about big storms that would flood and harm it, or the dry months when it would go dry.

    Now, the poet says this little brook is in your heart. What might it stand for? Your answer might be different from others because you might have a different brook than others. It's a very personal poem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much for spending time for my interrogation.

      Delete
    2. Doesn't the poem also send a message to people to not let their 'brook' go dry and to always keep it flowing?

      Delete
    3. Yes, I think that's a powerful message in the poem.

      Delete
  6. What does the poet mean by, ‘ And yet your little draught of life / Is daily drunken there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A 'draught' is something you would drink -- like draft beer. And 'drunken' is just past tense of 'drink' - the draught of life is drunk daily there. People have various thoughts about what it means to have a draft of life in the little brook of your heart. Dickinson implies, too, that some people might not have the little brook in their hearts.

      Delete
  7. How does the Brook change from March to August and how is it related to our life I can't understand

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Think about being overflowing versus being parched. If you can see how those two ways of being apply to your life, then you can read the last two stanzas carefully to get more details that you can use in your discussion. Good luck!

      Delete
  8. Hi , I didn’t get the last line of the poem ‘some burning noon go dry’

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Read the last two lines together. The subject is the brook (which stands for some live thing in your heart) and the concern is that some burning (hot) noon it might dry up.

      Delete
  9. So nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Can u please help me by
    Giving some inside question answers
    Please

    ReplyDelete
  11. Enjoyed your commentary very much. This has been one of my favorites throughout my life and still rings so true.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I also think the little brook, though fragile, is our precious lifeblood and is to be cherished and protected.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Can you please provide a 150-300 words summary with stanza by stanza explanation

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm amazed at how much response this little poem as brought out in people, and the many different interpretations. I remember a graduate class on post colonial Europe, and a small piece written by Camus, really it was three paragraphs, and we had a 45 minute discussion on its meaning, with as many interpretations as students. It dawned on me that the reason for that was not so much what the piece was really about but that Camus was a very good writer - like Shakespeare's writing in Hamlet as to why he did what he did??? But still, why did this particular poem of hers bring out all these questions, because like you I didn't find this poem as successful as others, but it is more straight forward and easier to draw conclusions from. Maybe that's it. So, with all that said, here is my two cents. I think the first four lines were key for me, especially the first line, that mo matter how lifeless or dead inside as many people are, we all have a little brook of humanity, of life, in all of us, otherwise we could not exist at all. But for those amongst us who have just those little brooks, they are more easily put asunder and drained of all life when things get tough.
    But then again, maybe not!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think most of the responders to this poem are in response to a school assignment -- probably middle school, grades 6-9. I imagine it is assigned is because it is fairly easy and the idea of the little brook is a good discussion question. Dickinson's stronger and more challenging poems aren't typically assigned until later in high school or college.
      The older I get the smaller I sense the little brook is in many folks. That's my bias towards the regenerative power of nature and art vs. various digital worlds such as games and instant news, etc.

      Delete
  15. Yes. Instead of my last sentence I was going to say that perhaps my interpretation is where I see life now, in my old age, like yourself. Thank you, your blog has kept me into reading ED. Not a small accomplishment on you part!

    ReplyDelete
  16. A lovely comment thread. Thanks for keeping the comic relief.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Speaking of cheeky, ED could have strengthened the poem by omitting the last four repetitions of the word the.

    On a bubbly note, a seasonal brook began behind ED’s house and drained west three miles to the Connecticut River. A mile east of ED’s house, Amethyst Creek ran southwest, also to the Connecticut. A marshy flatland forest bordered Amethyst Creek, today a conserved wetland in the City of Amherst.

    ED and her Newfoundland dog frequently hiked these haunts, searching for wildflowers and inspiring spots beside the creek.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for these details, Larry. Could you include your sources, and/or letter number? Appreciate it.

      Delete
  18. Brook headwaters behind Evergreen (and Homestead).

    http://gis.amherstma.gov/apps/Conservation.aspx

    Amythyst Creek

    https://www.google.com/maps/dir/42.3768002,-72.494977/Emily+Dickinson+Museum,+280+Main+St,+Amherst,+MA+01002/@42.3751901,-72.5117653,14.92z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e6cdf152a2d605:0xb0459b32ae198cb7!2m2!1d-72.5144687!2d42.3760833!3e2

    ReplyDelete
  19. Amythyst Creek

    https://www.google.com/maps/dir/42.3768002,-72.494977/Emily+Dickinson+Museum,+280+Main+St,+Amherst,+MA+01002/@42.3751901,-72.5117653,14z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e6cdf152a2d605:0xb0459b32ae198cb7!2m2!1d-72.5144687!2d42.3760833!3e2

    Brook behind Evergreen (and ED's house)

    http://gis.amherstma.gov/public/Viewer.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  20. Carlo the Newfoundland

    https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/carlo-1849-1866-dog/

    ReplyDelete