Emily Dickinson’s “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose”
The speaker in Dickinson’s poem “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose” is dramatizing what she knows about the sunrise but then hazards only a dramatic guess about sunset. Her choice for the target of her knowledge transforms the simple of act sunrise into a symbol.
Introduction with Text of “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose”
Emily Dickinson’s poem “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose” consists of sixteen lines, featuring her signature slant rimes and a generous sprinkling of dashes. The poem is written as one piece without divisions by stanzas but sections itself topically into four movements.
The first two movements describe how the sun came up on the particular morning of the speaker’s choosing, while in the second two movements, the speaker is simply dramatizing her suggestion for why she cannot explain how the sun set.
I’ll tell you how the Sun rose
I’ll tell you how the Sun rose –
A Ribbon at a time –
The Steeples swam in Amethyst –
The news, like Squirrels, ran –
The Hills untied their Bonnets –
The Bobolinks – begun –
Then I said softly to myself –
“That must have been the Sun”!
But how he set – I know not –
There seemed a purple stile
That little Yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while –
Till when they reached the other side,
A Dominie in Gray –
Put gently up the evening Bars –
And led the flock away –
Commentary on “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose”
Emily Dickinson’s “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose” is dramatizing what the speaker knows about the sunrise but then hazards only a dramatic guess about sunset. Interestingly, she is suggesting that she can observe the sunrise but not the sunset.
First Movement: Explaining the Unexplainable
I’ll tell you how the Sun rose –
A Ribbon at a time –
The Steeples swam in Amethyst –
The news, like Squirrels, ran –
The speaker announces that she will be explaining to her listeners, “how the Sun rose.” She then through the employment of metaphor likens the sun’s rays to ribbons that are released a single ribbon at a time. The colorful sun ribbons of rays are leisurely released, and they hover the ocean to a place where the steeples of churches appear to “sw[i]m in Amethyst.”
The sun’s fire then looms upon the blackness, immediately reverting to blue as it takes on a brightness, fully glowing because of the light that the sun has released. The luminescence of the sun spreads with great haste; thus the speaker compares its speed to the scampering of squirrels, as she calls the event “news.”
Second Movement: The Ordinary Made Extraordinary
The Hills untied their Bonnets –
The Bobolinks – begun –
Then I said softly to myself –
“That must have been the Sun”!
The speaker now asserts that the hills removed their “Bonnets,” and the birds knowns as “Bobolinks” commenced their singing. The metaphoric personification of hills with bonnets suggests that all of nature is coming alive again, and the speaker knows this because she sees many colors that may be detected in the faraway hills. Birds have awakened, and they have begun their many layered chirping.
The speaker’s reaction is such that it would make it seem she is seeing this event for the first time. She muses and quotes herself breathlessly, for example, as she exclaims,”‘That must have been the Sun’!” The speaker is creating her little drama using ordinary items from her environment which she makes extraordinary in her reporting.
Third Movement: A Forceful Drama
But how he set – I know not –
There seemed a purple stile
That little Yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while –
The speaker then envisions her situation to be nearer to sunrise than to sunset. This idea, of course, is merely fictional, but it offers her the ability to create her drama of how the sun rises. She knows she cannot explain scientifically such an event, but she can forcefully and dramatically imagine it.
So in order to explain sunset, she imagines she can see a set of steps that appear purple in color from a distance. Little Chinese children are climbing on those steps. Those children are likely just going home from a day of school or tending sheep.
Fourth Movement: The Cover of Darkness
Till when they reached the other side,
A Dominie in Gray –
Put gently up the evening Bars –
And led the flock away –
The children have climbed to the other side of the stile, an event that signals the sun’s lowest point just as it then vanishes from sight. A shepherd or perhaps even a churchman secures the gate then leads the flock of sheep or perhaps children away from that area.
Because darkness is now hovering thick, the speaker cannot offer any images for what may be happening next. The speaker’s lack of knowledge about sunset is reflected in her word choices which are much less certain than her drama about how the sun rises. By suggesting that she can tell you all about how the sun rose but not so much about how it set implies the speaker prefers sunrise to sunset.
The Symbolism of Sunrise
In Emily Dickinson’s “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose,” sunrise becomes symbolic of life-enhancing positivity: the beginning of the day offers opportunities for living and creating. Sunset, on the other hand, simply offers the opportunity for sleep.
The curious active mind is always hankering for more positive opportunities for acting out its desires, for securing a stage for creativity, and for living its need for motion. That stage is daylight, after the sun rises and throws its life-giving rays upon land and its inhabitants.
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