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speedcuberpro
07-03-2011, 09:36 PM
Hi there, I am new to both this forum and poetry. Can anyone please help analyse the following poem:

The wind tapped like a tired man,
And like a host, "Come in,"
I boldly answered; entered then
My residence within

A rapid, footless guest,
To offer whom a chair
Were as impossible as hand
A sofa to the air.

No bone had he to bind him,
His speech was like the push
Of numerous humming-birds at once
From a superior bush.

His countenance a billow,
His fingers, if he pass,
Let go a music, as of tunes
Blown tremulous in glass.

He visited, still flitting;
Then, like a timid man,
Again he tapped--'t was flurriedly--
And I became alone.

-Emily Dickinson

Please tell me what is the author trying to convey, the meaning of the poem and why did the poet compose this poem. Thank you very much! :)

YesNo
07-04-2011, 10:00 AM
I don't know the correct answer to this and since this is a famous poet and this is probably an assignment, your teacher would probably want you to research something about Dickinson and reflect that in your answer.

But just reading this assuming it were written by an anonymous poet posting on this forum, I would say the "tired" and "timid" man contrasts with her "boldly" letting him in. She might be expecting a sexual advance and was disappointed that her guest was neither able nor willing to provide this.

OrphanPip
07-04-2011, 10:11 AM
But just reading this assuming it were written by an anonymous poet posting on this forum, I would say the "tired" and "timid" man contrasts with her "boldly" letting him in. She might be expecting a sexual advance and was disappointed that her guest was neither able nor willing to provide this.

Haha, that's an interesting way of looking at it.

The poem functions superficially as an ornate description of a speaker opening a window to let the wind blow into her home. On another level, the wind embodies a sort of divinity, and the speaker's relationship to the wind expresses a sort of religious anxiety.