Reading Emily Dickinson’s poem is very interesting and confusing. Almost every line or every two lines seems to have subliminal messages. Each poem seems riddled in very specific metaphors. Without defining every word and figuring which specific definition she applied to the statement I had trouble making sense of it.
The Poem Water, is taught by thirst (pg. 323) has the same first line as the title. This first idea sets the theme for the poem; the theme being that you can’t understand one thing without knowing what caused it, or what is the lack of it. Or more directly we are taught the value of something, such as water, from the experience of not having it, such as when we feel thirsty.
Being thirsty caused us to get water to quench the thirst. The Earth is covered in water and as the Oceans, land is formed under the water and as the water subsides or the land rises we have land. It is pain that causes us to grow and move on in life. It is only after a cruel war that you would make peace. It is memory and experience and the desire for more that gives us a feeling and desire for love. As the weather changes to snow many birds migrate and with time when the snow disappears the birds return. Each line seems to be a simile to each other one pushing that theme that you cannot understand or define something without fully knowing its opposite and it applies that without the contrast, for example without war you can’t have peace. It’s like each idea is directly defined, or as Emily Dickinson puts it “taught” by “inoculating” its opposite.
To me this poem is an idea of how you learn something in life; it is only after suffering a pain or making a mistake that you can learn to correct it or appreciate what caused it.
