Poem XVIL by Emily Dickinson :: Poetry

Poem XVIL Even though this poem is only two very short paragraphs, it has a very strong meaning behind it that can be explained easily. What this poem is saying is that even through Dickinson has never seen the ocean, ever prayed to God, or ever gone to church, she can still imagine what the waves look like on the ocean, rolling over each other all day and all night. She can also imagine what it’s like to be one of gods people, having a great and loving connection with him. What she’s saying is that she doesn’t need to SEE something with her own eyes to know the general idea of what it does. She can simply look at a painting of the ocean to see what the waves look like. Or talk to one of gods people to figure out how they felt about having god in their lives. Even though she doesn’t experience things first hand, she can use her common sense to fill in the gaps of what she doesn’t know. Common sense is one of the big things that makes this poem American. We, as Americans, are always looking for that back door, that easy way out, a way to skip a few steps to get to the finish. We will try to fix the car or computer ourselves before looking at the instruction manual that tells us exactly how to do it, thinking it may save us some time. We use our common sense. We believe that we can fill in the gaps with what we already know. Are we right in not looking at the instruction manual first? Sometimes†¦ But sometimes we will only make it worse. Many people or ideas in America have become miss-understood because no one wants to look deeper into it, and they simply go along with what the bandwagon says about that person or those ideas.