NAME: ___________________________________
CLASS: ___________________________________
Professional Poet Promoters, Inc.
Dickinson Campaign Guiding Questions
1. Wikipedia is not always a reliable source. Why is the Wikipedia entry on Emily Dickinson a valid source of
information?
2. What did you learn about Emily Dickinson’s structure/syntax?
3. What did you learn about the themes of her poems?
4. Does the information on Wikipedia’s Emily Dickinson entry agree with the information you found on Poets.org?
List anything that you considered important and new that you found on Poets.org.
5. How does Emily's sister-in-law describe her? What sort of person is she depicted as in this memoriam?
6. What is Emily's sister-in-law suggesting when she says, "Very few in the village, except among the older
inhabitants, knew Miss Emily personally, although the facts of her seclusion and her intellectual brilliancy were
familiar Amherst traditions" ?
7. Does the fact vs. fiction section of Emily Dickinson Online contradict any information you’ve read thus far about
Dickinson? If so, list it here.
“BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH” GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. Who are the characters in this poem? (Hint: there are three people in the carriage)
2. How is death personified in this poem? Is he menacing? Is he courteous?
3. How does the action of the first stanza remind you of a date between a man and woman?
NAME: ___________________________________
CLASS: ___________________________________
4. What do the children in the third stanza represent? What about the setting sun? What might this stanza
represent?
5. Why does the narrator begin to get cold in the fourth stanza? Why is her clothing ironic, here? (Note: gossamer
gowns were often worn as wedding dresses in the 19th century)
6. Where has her gentleman caller taken her? What does their arrival at the “house” represent?
7. Does the narrator seem afraid of dying? What is her attitude towards death?
“I TASTE A LIQUOR NEVER BREWED” GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. What is this poem about? What is its overall theme?
2. What purpose does the extended metaphor of drunkenness serve in this poem? For what is it a metaphor?
3. What is Dickinson saying in stanza 3? Look up words you don’t know in order to understand this stanza.
4. Who is the “little tippler” in the last stanza?
5. How do the last two lines mesh with her metaphor of drunkenness? (Hint: imagine how those who are inebriated
walk and act)
6. Why does Dickinson mention angels and saints in her poem? Does she suggest they approve, disapprove, or care
not about her actions? (This question requires some thinking and personal interpretation!)
7. What is the overall tone of this poem?
NAME: ___________________________________
CLASS: ___________________________________
“I STARTED EARLY—TOOK MY DOG”
1. What does the second stanza mean? Remember to look up words you don’t know. (Hint: when one extends their
hands to another person, what sort of gesture is it?)
2. What begins happening in stanza three? Is it important that the tide is personified as a man?
3. What are the narrator’s emotions in stanza four? Why? When she says she “started—too—“ what does she mean?
4. In stanza five, is there a hint of physical connection between the sea and the speaker? Does the speaker think of
this connection as a thing of beauty? How can you tell?
5. How is the sea personified further in the last stanza? Why does he decide to leave?
6. What sense is there at the poem’s end? Relief? Loss?
7. Does the animation of this poem further your understanding of the poem, or does it serve to confuse you? Why?
8. Does the mini-analysis of this poem provided at Teachers’ Domain leave out any important themes or points about
this poem? What, if anything, has been left out?