Outline
1. Introduction
a. Thesis Statement
2. Theme
a. Theme of the poem
b. Poem’s setting
c. Significance of the title to the poem’s content or meaning
d. Mood of the poem
e. Narrator of the poem
3. Conclusion
Emily Dickinson’s poem “There is no Frigate like a Book” is a great example of the use of metaphor in poetry. The poem utilizes the theme of escape in describing how a book can carry a person away from reality. In using these metaphors, Dickinson is able to describe in only eight lines the power of literature and poetry on a person’s life.
The main theme of the poem seems to be that of escape. Escape from reality may be what the author is trying to demonstrate. Books do have a way of transporting the human mind to other places and realities. As such, it makes sense that a book, poem, or other form of literature would be an escape from a person’s present reality.
The poem could be literal, but it is situational in style. It is showing the situation of escape through books. “There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away” is the opening line in Dickinson’s poem. A frigate is a type of boat or vessel. She uses this metaphor as a way to express the transporting of one’s self to another land. The book is the frigate or vessel that is doing the transporting. A person is not literally being taken away, or physically taken away, but they are being psychologically taken away. Therefore it is the situation, the act of reading and immersing one’s self into the reading that leads to being taken away.
“Nor any Coursers like a Page / Of prancing Poetry” begins the next