Tag: American Poets

Emily Dickinson’s “It sifts from Leaden Sieves”

Emily Dickinson composed several poems that are just pure fun; they work similarly to riddles, not mentioning their subject that can be determined only by a correct interpretation of the poetic devices.

Introduction and Text of “It sifts from Leaden Sieves”

It is widely understood that Emily Dickinson fashioned most of her poems to focus on profound themes: life, death, the afterlife (immortality), and complex human relationships.

However, the Amherst recluse also composed a number of poems that show a propensity for pure fun.  These poems may be validly called riddles as they describe the subject but allow the reader to ferret out what the subject is.

It sifts from Leaden Sieves

It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –

It makes an Even Face
Of Mountain, and of Plain –
Unbroken Forehead from the East
Unto the East again –

It reaches to the Fence –
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces –
It deals Celestial Vail

To Stump, and Stack – and Stem –
A Summer’s empty Room –
Acres of Joints, where Harvests were,
Recordless, but for them–

It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen –
Then stills its Artisans – like Ghosts –
Denying they have been –

Commentary on “It sifts from Leaden Sieves”

This Dickinson poem functions as a riddle and remains on of her most widely anthologized creations.  The poem displays in 5 four-line stanzas.

First Stanza:  The Opening Metaphor

It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –

The speaker begins by metaphorically describing the item as a material that behaves much as does flour that one would use to bake a cake.  The substance that “sifts from Leaden Sieves” is behaving as if a housewife or baker might be doing in sifting flour for baking.

As the housewife sifts the flour, she places it in a bowl to prepare the dough; then she spreads the flour over a countertop or cutting board so she can roll out the dough.  However, the poem’s sifted substance does not end up in a bowl, not even in the house at all, but in the woods. As it does so, it fills in the cracks in the road and has the appearance of  “Alabaster Wool.”

Second Stanza:  A Kitchen Metaphor

It makes an Even Face
Of Mountain, and of Plain –
Unbroken Forehead from the East
Unto the East again –

Then the kitchen metaphor transforms into a hyperbolic face as the speaker asserts that this substance has piled so high that it creates the illusion that a mountain and the plain that appear level; it is “Unbroken Forehead from the East / Unto the East again.”

Third Stanza:  Moving Outdoors

It reaches to the Fence –
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces –
It deals Celestial Vail

The speaker then has the substance reaching to the fence where it forms a ring around the rail, making the fence appear to be wearing wedding gear.  The speaker describes the fields on which the substance has landed as “Summer’s empty Room”; the fields have been harvested and only stubble is still standing. 

Fourth Stanza:  A Substance That Seems Ubiquitous 

To Stump, and Stack – and Stem –
A Summer’s empty Room –
Acres of Joints, where Harvests were,
Recordless, but for them–

Now the substance fills up the empty field.  It become unrecognizable as a field but for the several stalks that still stand up through the white material that has fallen on them like flour over a countertop.

Fifth Stanza:  The Sifting Powder Made Plain

It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen –
Then stills its Artisans – like Ghosts –
Denying they have been –

In the final stanza, the speaker portrays the substance of some lace-like material that might be worn by a queen, but it is adding ruffles to the “Wrists of Posts.”  Suddenly, the weather changes, it stops snowing, and it seems that craftsmen suddenly ceased their work. 

The scene has been created, and by this time, readers and listeners will be aware that the substance that “sifts from Leaden Sieves” and “powders” the landscape is none other than snow, which the poem/riddle has never named, but only suggested.