There Is No Frigate like a Book Review

There is no Frigate like a Book

By

Emily Dickinson

Dickinson's poem "There is no Frigate like a Book" is both an emotional and enlightening in that the reader can sense the author is joyous over the thought of books and what they can and do represent. However it is also a poem which highlights the generational gap between Dickinson's time and ours.

1. Type of Poem - Quatrain, level of Rhyme

2. Use of Rhyme - to highlight the mood

3. Time Period - c. 1890

4. Contrast with Technology - ability to achieve poet's mindset nowadays

5. Relation to the Reader - how the present day reader may view the poet's position

Dickinson's poem "There is no Frigate like a Book" is both an emotional and enlightening in that the reader can sense the author is joyous over the thought of books and what they can and do represent. However it is also a poem which highlights the generational gap between Dickinson's time and ours. Dickinson's poem is a simple one that consists of two quatrains, or stanzas consisting of two sets of four lines that incorporate rhymes to highlight her points or theme. The theme throughout the poem is books. Her general premise is that books can take you places that no ship nor chariot alike can take you. She mentions modes of transportation throughout the poem to highlight the fact that reading can transport the mind and body places no other vehicle can. In essence she is saying that reading is a one of a mode of transport that is unrivaled; There is no frigate like a book, to take us lands away.

Her choice of rhyming in the poem is also interesting because it keeps the flow of the poem in an upbeat pattern. There is no frigate like a book. To take us lands away, Nor any coursers like a page. Of prancing poetry. These four lines highlight the feeling with which she is writing these words. She is passionate about reading and she enjoys everything about it; This traverse may the poorest take, Without oppress of toll; How frugal is the chariot, That bears a human soul. For her the idea behind reading is to transport the mind from its present state. It may be fair to assume that with this being understood about Dickinson that she preferred to read fiction based books,