Poetry Ch. 5 Figurative Language (3)

"Inebriate of Air-am I-And Debauchee of Dew" (797)

The poem "I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson contains an extended metaphor to which the speaker compares alcoholic intoxication to intoxication with the beauty of nature. The comparison to nature has many instances throughout to support it: "yield," "Debauchee of Dew," "Butterflies-renounce their 'dreams,'" "leaning against the-Sun." I think that the comparison is effective because everyone understands the feeling of being overcome with the beauty of nature and God's creation. The speaker describes alcoholic intoxication using the extended metaphor of intoxication of nature because people experience the same feeling of being on top of the world and happy when they are alcoholicly intoxicated and naturally intoxicated. Some of the descriptions of the beauty seen in alcoholic intoxication are beautiful occurences in nature that one can't help but see as beautiful. Some of these images are: "Tankards scooped in Pearl," "inns of Molten Blue," and "snowy Hats." I think that the figurative language of an extended metaphor is effective in this poem because it not the typical way we see drunks until the last stanza. It is almost letting us see the drunks from a new perspective.