Feet
Feet enter Dickinson’s poems self-referentially, since
the words foot and feet denote
poetic terms as well as body parts. In poetry, “feet” are the groups
of syllables in a line that form a metrical unit. Dickinson’s mention of
feet in her poems generally serves the dual task of describing functioning
body parts and commenting on poetry itself. Thus, when the speaker
of “A narrow Fellow in the Grass” (986) remembers
himself a “Barefoot” boy (11), he indirectly
alludes to a time when his sense of poetry was not fully formed.
Likewise, when the speaker of “After great pain, a formal feeling
comes” (341) notes that feet are going around
in his head while he is going mad, he points to the fact that his
ability to make poetry is compromised.
Stone
In Dickinson’s poems, stones represent immutability and
finality: unlike flowers or the light of day, stones remain essentially
unchanged. The speaker in “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” (216)
imagines the dead lying unaffected by the breezes of nature—and
of life. After the speaker chooses her soul in “The Soul selects her
own Society—” (303), she shuts her eyes “Like
Stone—” (12), firmly closing herself off
from sensory perception or society. A stone becomes an object of
envy in “How happy is the little Stone” (1510),
a poem in which the speaker longs for the rootless independence
of a stone bumping along, free from human cares.
Birds
Dickinson uses the symbol of birds rather flexibly. In
“A Bird came down the Walk” (328), the bird
becomes an emblem of the unyielding mystery of nature, while in
“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” (254),
the bird becomes a personification of hope. Elsewhere,
Dickinson links birds to poets, whose job is to sing whether or not
people hear. In “Split—the Lark—and you’ll find the Music” (861),
Dickinson compares the sounds of birds to the lyrical sounds of
poetry; the poem concludes by asking rhetorically whether its listeners
now understand the truths produced by both birds and poetry. Like
nature, symbolized by the bird, art produces soothing, truthful
sounds.
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