I Started Early – Took My Dog – by Emily Dickinson

I started Early – Took my Dog –

And visited the Sea –

The Mermaids in the Basement

Came out to look at me –

 

And Frigates – in the Upper Floor

Extended Hempen Hands –

Presuming Me to be a Mouse –

Aground – opon the Sands –

 

But no Man moved Me – till the Tide

Went past my simple Shoe –

And past my Apron – and my Belt

And past my Boddice – too –

 

And made as He would eat me up –

As wholly as a Dew

Opon a Dandelion’s Sleeve –

And then – I started – too –

 

And He – He followed – close behind –

I felt His Silver Heel

Opon my Ancle – Then My Shoes

Would overflow with Pearl –

 

Until We met the Solid Town –

No One He seemed to know –

And bowing – with a Mighty look –

At me – The Sea withdrew –

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My affinity for this 1862 poem by Emily Dickinson is rooted in the way that she is able to move the reader through her poems. She builds tension and releases it in a poem both about control and eroticism.

The first stanza feels so innocent, a walk with her dog. She’s met with mystical creatures as they mesmerize her. She creates a simple yet visual world in such few words, comforting her reader and introducing us to what may be a soft poem.

But, in true Dickinson fashion, it’s not all that it seems. As she moves the reader to the second stanza, there she is met with war boats, unveiling a new tension. The threat of attack and her eventual capture. Here is where she really builds that tension, the men of the boats bringing “hempden hands” to tie her together.

In the third stanza, she resists, sure no man could move her. But, she becomes overtaken by the water, wetting her from sole to bodice. The way she writes this stanza gives room for the reader to really question what is happening, who the man is, and what the ocean represents. To me, it is both about the way that men try to control her and her natural desires. She never married and was known for resisting public courting so to assume that she is writing this as a rejection of the social standards of single women in the 1800s America is not a wild stretch. However, my understanding of this moment is not only of control but of desire and eroticism. Purity standards of the time insisted that women did not involve themselves physically with men and we see Dickinson resist temptation in this poem. However, it lasts until the tide moves up her leg. She is swallowed by desire and while not giving herself up to it, does not deny it entirely. The eroticism comes from the way she describes the water swallowing her slowly. I think this creates a really beautiful sense of tension and is such a smart metaphor for the sensations of sex and desire.

While she doesn’t fully give in to her sexual wants in the third stanza, the fourth stanza gives us a moment of release as she says, “I started too”. This signifies her release into the arms of the water, a man or person she wants to intimate with.

After this, is my favorite moment of the poem as a whole. The fifth stanza hits the climax of both the poem and the speaker. The image of the silver boot, following so close she can feel it on her ankle is a beautiful and understated way of describing the growth to sexual climax. That silver boot is not only the ocean but a metaphor for orgasm as her shoes fill with pearls as she reaches her climax. Here, the tension is fully broken between the speaker and the reader.

The poem finishes as the sea retreats, leaving Emily in its wake.

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I think the reason that I am so drawn to this specific poem is how smart it is. Everything happening within it serves a purpose and the success of the poem would be extremely limited if an element was removed. I think that the choice to insert hyphens between many of the words creates a panting-like reading experience that mimics the panting of intimacy. I love her use of warships, a common motif of the time, to represent the coming risk that desire is related to. Her use of mysticism to separate herself from her speaker and to add an element of magic to the experience. I love that she does not frame herself as an impartial victim of the water, but resilient and eventually human enough to indulge.