Here’s a full analysis of the poem ‘A Still - Volcano - Life -’ by Emily Dickinson, tailored towards A-Level students but also suitable for those studying at a higher level. Enjoy and feel free to leave feedback if you found it useful!
Includes:
POEM
VOCABULARY
STORY / SUMMARY
SPEAKE...
A still — Volcano — Life —
That flickered in the night —
When it was dark enough to do
Without erasing sight —
A quiet — Earthquake Style —
Too subtle to suspect
By natures this side Naples —
The North cannot detect
The Solemn — Torrid — Symbol —
The lips that never lie —
Whose hissing Corals part — and shut —
And Cities — ooze away —
(1863)
VOCABULARY
Flickered - made a movement similar to a flame as it blows up and down in the air
Erasing - getting rid of
Subtle - delicate and precise, perhaps indirectly powerful
Naples - a city in Southern Italy, famous for being near Mt Vesuvius, an active volcano
Solemn - serious
Torrid - hot, dry and difficult
Corals - sea creatures that grow underwater and look like coloured rocks
Ooze - a squeezing motion when a thick liquid moves out of a small space
, STORY/SUMMARY
Stanza 1: I present to you a still image: A volcano - a symbol of life, the kind of energy
that flickered in the night when it was dark enough to flicker without completely
destroying sight altogether -
Stanza 2: There’s a quiet sound too - small tremors that happen in the style of an
Earthquake - too subtle and delicate for anyone who lives on this side of Naples
suspect - people who live far away from Volcanoes, up in the North, cannot recognise
their signs
Stanza 3: The serious - hot - symbol of a Volcano, the lips that never lie, when their
hissing borders open - and shut again - and Cities melt away in their heat
SPEAKER/VOICE
The poem has a very fragmented voice, with the meaning arriving to us in incoherent
bursts of energy that create a kind of chaotic flash of imagery before us - deliberately
challenging us to work hard to decipher the poem and make a clear, coherent meaning
out of it. Overall, the poem appears to begin with a focus on the idea of a Volcano
itself, and then transition to In this case, it is likely a deliberate choice on Dickinson’s
part to stay more true and faithful to the feeling and energy of a volcano, rendering its
bursts of energy and power, as well as its powerful silence (achieved through the
caesurae in the poem which show gaps in lines and meaning, as well as pauses in the
flow of the words).
LANGUAGE DEVICES
Extended metaphor - throughout the poem, the Volcano is used as an extended
metaphor for the self, demonstrating a particular kind of powerful personality which
is, for the most part, quiet, but within it contains immense energy that sometimes
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