18 pages • 36 minutes read
Emily DickinsonWild Nights Wild Nights
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1891A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Allure of Frenzied Feelings
The repetition of “Wild nights” (Line 1) indicates the theme of frenzied feelings. “Wild” means disorder or a lack of control, and night is a common time for many secret, illicit, or stimulating activities, from drinking to partying to sex.
The first word after the repetition of “wild nights” is “Were” (Line 2), and the modal verb represents possibility. The speaker’s poem centers on what would happen if they were with the addressee. The speaker isn’t physically with them, but the possibility produces tumult, and the potential frenzy allures them.
The theme somewhat modifies the erotic genre, turning the poem into an erotic fantasy. The addressee is absent, allowing the speaker to imagine the chaotic passion stirred up by their presence. Arguably, what excites the speaker isn’t the addressee but the construct of them. The speaker turns the addressee into a receptacle for their zealous emotions, and the frenzied portrait, not the addressee, is the primary draw. At the same, the addressee isn’t disposable. They still matter—they must exist to receive the volatile feelings. Yet their absence allows for exaggeration. If they were present, the speaker might be less exuberant.
Through the frenzied state, the speaker creates a rollicking sea adventure. They become a ship—or the captain of a ship—and the addressee turns into the sea. The intense emotions allow for carelessness, with the speaker shouting, “Done with the Compass - Done with the Chart!” (Lines 7-8). Spurred by the dizzying bond with the addressee, the speaker rejects external guidance. What they need is the addressee/sea.
The sea also symbolizes “Eden” (Line 9) or a paradise, and the speaker wishes they could “moor” (Line 11) themselves to the addressee/sea/paradise. The speaker wants to become one with the addressee, and the theme reveals the appeal of falling head-over-heels for someone and turning that someone (or something) into a bedrock.
Due to the modal verbs, the poem comes with a caveat or asterisk. The frenzied emotions allure the reader, but they don’t reflect the speaker’s physical reality. The addressee isn’t with the speaker, so the chaotic passion remains a fantasy.
Presence Versus Absence
The presence of the modal verbs creates the theme of presence versus absence. The addressee isn’t with the speaker. If they were physically together, there’s no need for the epistolary poem: The speaker could address the person (or God) directly. The absence of the addressee leads to a vacuum, and in the emptiness, the speaker makes the addressee present. Yet the addressee still isn’t physically present, with the speaker noting, “Were I with thee” (Line 2). The addressee remains a fantasy—a product of the speaker’s imagination.
The theme reveals how absence can spur presence. With the addressee elsewhere, the speaker can create an intense portrait of them. If the addressee were present, the reality of their presence might tame the speaker’s emotions, as reality often doesn’t live up to the fantasy.
Dickinson put significant stock in fantasy—or, less sensationally, imagination. In Emily Dickinson Face to Face (Archon Books, 1970), Dickinson’s niece—Susan’s daughter—Martha Dickinson Bianchi addresses the power of her aunt’s imagination and how she turns absence into a presence: “She had a way of alluding to and talking about the characters in books familiar to us both as if they were people living right about us” (41). The characters don’t exist in real life, but Dickinson acts as if they do. She treats them like real people.
In the poem, the addressee isn’t with Dickinson’s speaker, but the speaker’s passionate imagination makes them present and turns the bond into a high-seas tale from a book. In other words, they become characters. The speaker is the ship or the ship’s captain, and the addressee is the sea and Eden. They’re grand soul mates who belong together. What propels the mini story is the addressee's physical absence, which lets the speaker’s imagination go wild. The speaker can make them present, even if the presence only represents a fantasy.
The Power of Close Relationships
The power of close relationships develops through the intense tone. The deep bond the speaker feels for the addressee turns them into an exceptional force. They become an autonomous, independent duo. If they were together, they wouldn’t need riches. As a union, they’d produce their own wealth, or as the speaker puts it, “Wild nights should be / Our luxury” (Lines 3-4). Not only does the pair not need money, but they don’t need parties, alcohol, or any of the common elements that compose a typical “wild night.” They can create their own wild nights without help from anyone else.
The naval metaphor reinforces the power of close relationships. The “winds” become an adversary, but they are “[f]utile” and can’t tear the speaker away from the addressee (Line 5). Thus, deep connections can battle and defeat nature. They can also lead to carelessness and isolation. The speaker declares, “Done with the Compass - Done with the Chart!” (Lines 7-8). The speaker banishes external assistance. They reduce the world to the addressee, so the addressee becomes their world—the addressee is their “Eden” (Line 9) and “Sea” (Line 10), and where the speaker wants to “moor” (Line 11). The powerful feelings prompt the speaker to fasten themselves to the addressee or exist inside them. In the erotic context, “moor” arguably reads as a penetration, and the penetration could be physical, spiritual, or both.
The speaker’s “Heart” resides in the “port” of the sea that is the addressee (Line 6). As the sea represents the speaker’s beloved, it also symbolizes paradise. The intimate relationship saturates the speaker’s world. The close relationship’s power turns it into a separate universe. What happens in the other world is of no consequence to the speaker and their addressee. Their bond produces an alternate world with a distinct currency and geography. The closeness creates a universe where only the speaker and the addressee exist.
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By Emily Dickinson
