With its frequent references to the consumption of alcohol, the poem is clearly in conversation with the temperance movement. Dickinson maintains a certain affectionate ribbing of the movement throughout the text. She employs a playful lexicon of drinking terminology, but makes clear she finds intoxication with nature to be preferable to actual liquor. For this reason, it is informative to know the context that shaped this major work of hers.
The temperance movement was an anti-alcohol social cause that gained mainstream popularity in the 1860s. Its proponents sought to fight against what they perceived as the "evils" of alcohol and the dangers it presented to public health. The movement gained particular traction for both its religious overtones as well as its focus on curtailing domestic abuse, gambling, prostitution, and crime. The commonly held perception of pro-temperance Americans was that alcohol had come to wreak havoc on major cities, making them unclean and unsafe. For these activists, the moral and practical concerns fell under one large umbrella. Religious leaders quickly championed the cause. Chief among these supporters were the Methodists, who believed fervently that alcohol was an undeniable root of sin. Its removal from society, they believed, would usher in a new era of prosperity.
Also notable was the overlap between women's rights activists and the temperance movement. Susan B. Anthony led the first Women's Temperance Convention in 1853. The concerns of these suffragettes were multilayered. They wanted to be included in the movement which had been, up to that point, male-dominated. But they also recognized that women often bore the brunt of alcohol's dangerous side effects. Whether it was in the home or out in the world, encounters with men were much more likely to turn violent when intoxication was involved.
Dickinson's intersection with these issues lies at the core of the poem. Much like the paradoxical "liquor never brewed," the poem is about intoxication without alcohol. Dickinson twists the language around drinking culture ("dram," "tankard" and so on) to capture a euphoric state experienced in nature. The poem never endorses actual alcohol consumption, but Dickinson keeps the tone around it playful in a way that the temperance movement would likely have disapproved of. This discord is ironic given the poem's tacit implication of natural intoxication being more valuable and enriching. This history is even more interesting given that this poem actually appeared (with alterations) in print during her lifetime, meaning its contemporary readers could feel its charged context.
