Wild Nights — Wild Nights! Essay Questions

How does the opening stanza relate to the rest of the poem?

While each stanza of "Wild Nights - Wild Nights!" centers on changing imagery, its central idea links them together. The first stanza contains multiple uses of the phrase "wild nights" while the second stanza depicts the scene of a tumultuous ocean voyage. While the gulf between these two things seems wide, there is actually a strong thematic thread between them. In desiring "wild nights" and envisioning rough waters, the speaker reveals that their romance is inseparable from some degree of turbulence. "Wild nights" are precisely what the speaker hopes for from this relationship. This is all cinched in the third stanza when the speaker uses the word "tonight" between dashes. They express both a passionate desire to see their beloved, while also making the emotional tenor of the relationship clear. The opening stanza frames the entire relationship and the content that follows it.

How is passion characterized in the text of the poem?

While a more traditional poet might have imagined love as a journey to predictable safety, Dickinson offers a slanted take on that idea in this work. While the speaker describes a longing for shared "luxury" with their love interest, this comes in the form of "wild nights." In the lines that follow, they compare their heart's quest for reciprocated love to that of a ship crossing dangerous waters. The final stanza reiterates this hope while reaching the fever pitch of its tone. In Dickinson's vision, passion is seen as a wild thing that remains untamed, even after the union of two individuals. In fact, the poem expresses a wish for this intensity to endure throughout the relationship.