The Power of Nature
The poem's central theme is the power that nature holds over those who behold it. Nature's capacity to inspire wonder and awe is on full display throughout the text. By using the language of alcohol consumption, Dickinson is able to shed light on the feeling of being struck by the beauty of the natural world. The speaker zeroes in on images of animals and scenery with colorful and heightened diction, underlining her enraptured feelings. Nature is the "liquor never brewed," creating the same effect of intoxication as a liquor. The speaker is filled with wonder at what she is seeing, raised to a state of elation. The point that the speaker appears to be communicating is that nature is in possession of a kind of intoxicating power. Nature is able to make her feel drunk and, later, elevate her to spiritual transcendence. Nature, in the speaker's conception, is an incredible force with the ability to completely overwhelm its beholder on multiple levels. As shown to the reader throughout the poem, nature's power lies in its ability to draw in and transport its viewers.
The Effects of Alcohol
In tandem with the theme of nature, the poem also deals with the effects of alcohol. Alcohol and intoxication serve as an extended metaphor for the power of nature. The speaker is overwhelmed by nature's majesty in the same way that she would be by a strong drink. However, the speaker makes a sharp distinction between these parallels. She opens the poem describing a "liquor never brewed," meaning it was never manufactured. This allows her to capture the feeling of drunkenness while evading the literal image of an alcoholic beverage. This delineation makes the intoxication with nature more significant in that denotes the negative effects of man-made liquor. In choosing to depict a "natural" kind of inebriation, the speaker is quietly stating a preference for it. The joy (and religious experience) she finds in nature is clearly much stronger than anything she would find at the bottom of a glass. This was also a timely reference, given the contemporary historical drama of the temperance movement. Dickinson plays with this idea in comparing this wonder to alcohol-based intoxication and subtly shows how the former has no adverse side effects. As is demonstrated throughout the work, the speaker experiences only positive feelings from this "liquor."
Religion
The poem introduces religion as a theme in its closing moments. The "liquor never brewed" is the speaker's experience of nature but it is also, as shown in these moments, shaped by God. This idea is further solidified in the final stanza when the speaker mentions religious figures—seraphs and saints—then describes herself as a "little tippler leaning against the sun." These references in the final stanza serve to show the speaker rising to a state of spiritual transcendence in nature. This shift is not a change in tone but rather a logical progression from her initial feeling of lighthearted happiness to one of transcendent peace. Nature is depicted as having the power not only to uplift the speaker, but also to give her (or anyone) a spiritual experience. By the end of the poem, she has gone from marveling at nature to feeling unified with it. This feeling is highlighted in the image of the speaker "leaning against the sun." It also shows the difference between the speaker's version of intoxication and the regular sort experienced from drinking. Where the speaker finds herself, in the end, having reached a kind of awakening, most heavy drinkers would be in more adverse circumstances.
