Emily Dickinson's Grammatical Parallelism

Grammatical parallelism is the “symmetrical arrangement of words, phrases and clauses in sentences” (Turco, 1999, Page 6). In the first stanza, examples of symmetrical clauses include one main clause i.e. the whole stanza followed by two embedded subordinate clauses. The first being ‘For-put them side by side- The one the other will contain With ease-and You-beside’ and the second ‘-put them side by side- ‘. These are both adverbial clauses which makes it easier for the reader to follow the structure but also to possibly foreground that humans can comprehend themselves as a being alongside others, however it can be complex, mirroring the complex adverbial. Moreover, the connection between the brain in line one and ‘You’ in line four is unusual
The second stanza parallels the first in terms of its structure including the repetition of words such as ‘The Brain’ alongside ‘The one the other will’. However, in the last line we have an adverbial clause like the previous stanza yet encompasses an odd structure. Dickinson writes ‘As sponges-buckets do-’, here the verb ‘do’ lies at the end of the clause and contrasts with the two nouns beforehand, foregrounding the emphasis of the line. Finally, in the last stanza the structure breaks down and only parallels to a certain degree. The first line includes an extra word ‘just’ and this follows through to the last two lines in which the transitive structure is evoked and replaced by an intransitive one in which the brain and God ‘will differ’ yet is doubted with ‘if they do’ which is an adverbial clause. This foregrounds Dickinson’s notion that God and man are profusely linked, and you cannot talk about one without the other and if you do you will not find many
Dickinson uses semantic deviation via metaphors in this poem, for example the first line states ‘The Brain is wider than the Sky- ‘. This deviates from the norm as a brain can be measured and compared to another however the sky cannot, as it is boundless and weightless. This foregrounding shows Dickinson’s view that the mind is just as wide and infinite as the sky and are equals similarly to her use of ‘You’ and the sky in which she foregrounds that we contain not only the sky but an understanding of ourselves. Stanza two semantically parallels stanza one as there is repetition of the subject ‘The Brain’ alongside another metaphor ‘deeper than the sea- ‘. Once more, Dickinson uses measurement to show the capacity of our brains by likening it to the ocean. This foregrounds the last line and metaphor ‘As Sponges-Buckets do- ‘as it links the water and the sponge together not just by absorbing water but being containers of it, which associates God and us as we come from god. Moreover, ‘-Blue to Blue- ‘parallels with ‘side by side’, this is foregrounded as the ocean and the sky have been described as blue therefore our brains must be as well although we know they are of different colour it signifies us as an embodiment of the sea/ocean. Lastly, stanza three deviates from the other two as it does not talk about what can be contained but mentions ‘the weight of