Were I with thee
Wild nights should be Our luxury!
In a compact format, the speaker lays out a layered vision of their longing. They imagine togetherness in the line "were I with thee." Repeating the opening lines, they describe "wild nights" as something to be shared with the recipient of these romantic entreaties. The implication here is that the "wilds" of passion would not subside even after pining gave way to a relationship of some kind. This is further intuited by the use of the phrase "our luxury" as it both joins the "I" and "thee" from two lines prior and colors these nights as something to treasured.
Futile - the winds -
To a Heart in port -
In these lines, the poem begins to incorporate the natural world. The first line marks "the winds" as "futile" because of the intensity of the speaker's feeling. This feeling is encapsulated in the capitalized word "Heart." The speaker imagines this search for the beloved's reciprocal affection as a ship searching for a "port" in treacherous waters. This is also augmented by Dickinson's use of dashes, which appear like white caps on a windy sea, supporting the images of turbulence in this second stanza. The central idea of these lines is that this journey, while dangerous, is an inevitable one, as the speaker's feeling cannot be stopped.
Might I but moor - tonight -
In thee!
This note of conclusion neatly ties back to the poem's beginning, while retaining the nautical terms of its middle. The speaker sees final peace, the fulfillment of the romantic connection, as the "mooring" of their boat, a return to safety. Furthermore, the specificity of the word "tonight" marks it in contrast to the more general "wild nights" from the poem's beginning. The speaker imagines the comfort of this "mooring" as something more immediate than their earlier reflections upon the future. The final line, which ends in an exclamation just as the first line does, closes the reverie. It is the end of a declaration of passionate love and fittingly ends with a direct address to its recipient.
