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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
In Dickinson’s poem, the speaker elaborates on the centrality of the mental faculties in creation. As the speaker lists off the essential components of prairieland construction, they list “revery” (Line 3) after “One clover and a bee” (Line 2). In the first half of the poem, it sounds like the speaker says all three elements are equally as important to make a prairie. However, by the poem’s conclusion, the speaker changes their message and clarifies that “If bees are few” (Line 5), then “revery alone will do” (Line 4). If the bees are absent or diminished, then their type of physical and practical work and perseverance is gone. Instead of giving up, however, the speaker declares that the way forward is still possible with the help of the mental faculties. “Revery” (Line 3) specifically refers to the imagination, to having visions, to dreams. While these elements are at times looked down upon by society or disregarded as frivolous and insubstantial, Dickinson’s speaker validates their worth. These qualities—the ability to dream and imagine—are just as essential to the act of creation as physical production, if not more. Dickinson validates these skills by removing the elements of the bee and the clover by the poem’s conclusion.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson