A Day by Emily Dickinson

A Day    

                    by Emily Dickinson

A  Day

By Emily Dickinson

A day presents innocence views of a child. His innocence views on sun rise and sunset.

The surprise of the writer can be seen as the speaker expresses certainty with explanation. The persona might be a small child who can explain about the rising sun. The arrival of rays down to the earth smoothen the steeple of the church like amethyst, a purple precious stone. The newness of the life appears. The bird, bobolink starts chirping.  The animals start their life journey. feels that the object is the sun.

The second part of the poem presents that she is not aware about its set. There is a gradual purple step as there are frequent changes in the shape of the sun. The boys and girls start moving ahead to reach another side. The old teacher enters into the bar and takes the flock away.

The rising sun has been compared with the beginning of the life. The life begins with the riisng sun. life moves ahead with rising sun and fades away with setting sun. The speaker, or poet persona, in Dickinson’s poem is an unnamed child. He/she begins the poem as if responding to a question. The persona is confident and excited talking about sunrise. However, that confidence wanes when the child describes sunset. Regardless, this speaker’s diction and inherent innocence urge readers to appreciate the beauty of nature. 

The poem is full of literary devices. There is the use of symbols, metaphors, simile and personification. The dominant literary device use in the poem is sybolism. The poem symbolizes the transition from life to death. The rising sun symbolizes the life and setting sun symbolizes death. The stanza of the poem infers the human behaviors associated with life and death. The religious perspective that awaits after death. We can also find the use of metaphors in the poem. Ribbons, for rays yellow boys and girls, Dominie in gray, evening bars are strong metaphors.

The speaker takes the reader on a mental journey from the miracle of sunrise to the mystery of sunset. The poem begins with declaration “ I’ll tell you how the sun rose.” The speaker is confident enough to presents the idea of rising sun.