EPriano - In lands I never saw - they say
[author: Elisa Priano - postdate: 2007-10-23]

Text:  In lands I never saw:
Task:  Writing and Textual analisys

     

IN LANDS I NEVER SAW-THEY SAY

 

Denotative analysis

 

The poetess says that in lands she has never seen there are the Alps that reach  the sky and touch the town. She adds that the Alps are immortal (immortal means something that can't die).

The reader understands that Emily Dickinson attributes human qualities to the mountains which are inanimate.  "Bonnets" and "Sandals" are also personifications.

The poetess wears  the Alps as if they were women. She uses the plural because she refers to chains of mountains.

In the second stanza she describes daisies at the feet of the Alps because it is summer  and they represent people.  At the end of the poem  there is a question that creates a pause in the rhythm  and the anaphora in line seven  underlines the words "you" and "I".

 

Connotative analysis

 

From reading the title I expect to read about fantastic lands.Emily dickinson reports words of ather people and speaks in the first person. The poem consists of two stanzas. Each stanza is composed of a quatrains.

There is also a personification in each stanza. Personification is a figure of speech. It is when you add human beings to something. The first personification adds human qualities to the Alps. The tops of the mountains are "Bonnets" and the feet of the mountains are "Sandals". The second stanza has another personification: "Myriad daisy" to describe the people playing  at the feet of the mountains. An ironic question concludes the poem. I think the Alps are something special for the author because they are described whit words that remember a sense of immortality. From reading the poem readers understand that the text is a reflection of the poetess. She wants to understand where her boyfriend and she are in that strange world.