Glee! The storm is over

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

GLEE! the great storm is over!

Four have recovered the land;

Forty gone down together

Into the boiling sand.

Ring, for the scant salvation!

Toll, for the bonnie souls,—

Neighbor and friend and bridegroom,

Spinning upon the shoals!   

How they will tell the shipwreck

When winter shakes the door,

Till the children ask, “But the forty?

Did they come back no more?”  

Then a silence suffuses the story,

And a softness the teller’s eye;

And the children no further question,

And only the waves reply.

Source:    http://www.bartleby.com/113/1005.html

Review:

      This Dickinson piece generally possesses a pessimistic attitude and it employs good use of language to provide excellent coherence and clarity in spite of its meek length. The poet's choice of topic is quite interesting, in that it goes beyond the usual topic of our generation. However, given the time in which she actually wrote the piece, it can be inferred that the theme is somewhat of a norm in the author’s time in that it focuses on seafaring – a common undertaking in the nineteenth century.

      The poem seems to show how the persona, possibly even the writer herself, grieves the loss of loved ones at sea. Despite the sullen mood of the poem, it is not entirely free verse, as most dark-themed works tend to be written. The rhythm and the length of each line have apparent conformity while the rhyme scheme of the poem is also quite evident. The outstanding thing about the poem, however, is that the rhyme scheme is so intricately woven with finely chosen words that without due notice to the scheme, one would not be able to observe that the author actually followed a scheme at all.

      In general, Glee! The storm is over is extremely well-written, catering to functions both aesthetic and practical.

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