Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The poem has a first-person speaker, likely a stand-in for Dickinson herself. She is characterized by her free-wheeling tone and zoomed-in perspective on natural images.
Form and Meter
The poem utilizes ballad meter.
Metaphors and Similes
The poem's central metaphor is elation in nature being like alcoholic intoxication. Within this framework, Dickinson makes a parallel between a foxglove and a tavern.
Alliteration and Assonance
There is alliteration in the A sounds of the line: "Inebriate of air – am I – ," the D sounds in ""And Debauchee of Dew –" and the S sounds in "Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats"
Irony
N/A
Genre
Nature poetry, light verse, ballad
Setting
The setting of the poem is in an unspecified countryside, on a clear summer day.
Tone
The tone is elated and freewheeling.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the speaker; there is no really antagonist.
Major Conflict
The poem does not have much in the way of a central conflict. The only thing the speaker tries to avoid is the end of her excited state.
Climax
The poem reaches its climax in the fourth stanza when the speaker feels elevated to a religious state by her intoxication with nature.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
Seraphs are an allusion to the biblical image of celestial beings (angels). Foxglove is a reference to a specific type of flower.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
There is a personification of bees and butterflies in the third stanza:
When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door –
When Butterflies – renounce their "drams" –
Hyperbole
The speaker is hyperbolic throughout the poem. The central metaphor is one of overstatement: they are excited and moved by nature in a way that makes them feel drunk.
Onomatopoeia
N/A
