An Analysis Of Emily Dickinson's The Props Assist The House

In Emily Dickinson’s ‘The Props assist the House’, it is clear to the reader that the house represents a single person, and the props all of the people who ‘build’ said person. What's left for interpretation is what each of these props can represent specifically, and how the scaffolding plays into everything.
In line 7 Dickinson references “the Auger and the Carpenter”. It is possible to believe that she is using these tools to represent a parent and a teacher.
An auger is a tool that bores holes into something, although in the context she uses the term, she’s referring to the person who uses the auger. Parents, from the time a child is born, drill different things into their child's head. Manners, rules, values, morals; the list goes on.
A carpenter is a person who builds and repairs wooden items. As a child enters school and is learning all these new fascinating things of the world, a teacher can really make or break said child. As an experienced, passionate carpenter makes for better woodwork, an experienced, passionate teacher makes for better students. Similar to a house and carpenter, a student has many different teachers as they grow up, each leaving something behind. And if one carpenter
These items, literally speaking, are the materials; what the house is made of. These can be construed as character traits of a person and the values and beliefs a person has. The planks are the traits. These planks are the structure of the house. Under drywall and windows and shingles and siding, these are the backbone of the house’s entire being. Sturdy, strong planks to hold the house upright and floorboards to separate different parts of the house. And what would a house be without nails? Nothing. Even though nobody thinks of them, they’re the most important part of the house. A house can have the strongest, sturdiest planks, but they're essentially useless without the nails to hold them