The Shipwreck

• About Emily Dickinson


  She was born in 1830 and she was an Agoraphobic
• What is agoraphobia?


  fear of open spaces, crowds, etc
• Structural elements of the poem


  4 stanzas with 4 lines (quatrains), regular metre
• The first two stanzas focus on...

  the joy of the 4 people who were saved
• The last two stanzas focus on...

  the grief and sorrow of the forty people lost
• Context to the poem (about the shipwreck)

  shipwrecks were common during Dickinson's time. This specific shipwreck was one where 40 people died and 4 people returned. The poem is written as if it is a story being told to children on a cold winter's night
• The poem can be classified as a contrasting poem because


  it contrasts joy/celebration and sorrow/grief
• Line 1: "Glee! The great storm is over!" indicates...

  celebration -> the use of exclamation marks draw attention to the celebratory tone
• What is the function of the enjambent in lines 3 and 4: "Forty gone down...into the boiling sand"?


  it indicates how the victims of the shipwreck were lost into the sea
• What does "boiling sand" suggest about the sea?


  that it was angry
• The word "ring" in line 5 and the word "toll" in line 6 are examples of

  contrast
• Line 5: "Ring, for the scant salvation!" suggests


  even though there were only a few lives that were saved -> "scant", we must still celebrate
• "Bonnie souls" refers to...


  the lovely/good people who died
• What is the function of the dash in line 6 "...bonnie souls, --"?


  it indicates an abrupt explanation about who the "bonnie souls" are, is going to follow
• Why are the "bonnie souls" explained/why are examples given of who they are?


  this underlines the loss to the community as these people were obviously known to them -> personal
• Explain the function of the exclamation mark in line 8: "Spinning upon the shoals!"


  it highlights the fate of those who drowned
• Explain the function of the alliteration of the s-sound in line 8: "spinning, shoals"


  it emphasises the movement of the sea and the people struggling in the water
• Explain the function of the w-alliteration in line 10: "When winter shakes the door,"


  it sounds like the wind, emphasising the cold
• Explain the personification in line 10: "When winter shakes the door,"


  people will not forget -> the story has to be told or else they will keep 'shaking the door'/asking questions
• What do the children's questions in line 11 and 12 indicate: "But the forty? Did they come back no more?"


  these indicate the innocence of the children
• What is pathos?


  a quality that evokes pity or sadness
• What is the pathos in this poem?


  the last stanza -> it has a somber tone
• What does "suffuses" mean?


  to spread through
• Explain the function of the s-alliteration in line 13: "Then a silence suffuses the story,"


  it emphasises the somber tone
• The repetition of the word "And" at the beginning of lines 14, 15 and 16 is called?

  Anaphora
• Line 14: "And a softness the teller's eye;" refers to...


  the sadness of the storyteller -> possibly tears
• Explain the function of the personification in line 16: "And only the waves reply"


  it is suitable because the answer is in the sea -> the people died due to the rough sea/drowned
• In line 16: "And only the waves reply" follows a slow pace, explain


  this slow pace lingers which allows the reader to imagine the silence that follows after the children's question
• What is the rhyme pattern in this poem?


  abcb, defe, ghih, jklk
• What is the tone of the poem?


  in the beginning the tone is joyful, but it then changes to a somber tone