Wild Nights – Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson
“Wild nights – Wild nights!” The exuberance and fervor with which Emily Dickinson opens this poem invite us to partake in the excitement and passion she expresses, daring us to resist such an alluring proposition. While this may not be the first line of Dickinson that springs to mind, the entire poem merits an in-depth exploration.
Summary
Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Attempting to paraphrase a poem, particularly one as distinctive as Dickinson’s, is often a precarious endeavor. Nevertheless, the opening stanza captivates us with its contemporary resonance. It reads almost like a flirtatious invitation, elegantly articulated: “If I were with you tonight, we would indulge in the wildest of experiences, trust me. Do you catch my drift?” However, it is essential to note the transition from the first to the second line: “Wild nights!” does not recount an actual experience of passion but rather conveys a yearning for something the speaker wishes were real: “Were I with thee,” she asserts, shifting to the subjunctive mood, where dreams and desires reside rather than reality.
This playful flirtation within the stanza seems intentional. The repeated phrase “Wild nights” – twice in the first line and again at the start of the third line – reinforces the notion of wild passion that the speaker envisions between herself and the recipient of her longing.
Futile – the winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
The middle stanza complicates our initial interpretation. These “wild nights” would serve as the lovers’ “luxury” because they would be together, a serene oasis amidst the chaos of life. The winds would futilely strive to divert them, while their hearts remain “in port,” having safely navigated to each other and needing no further chart or compass.
There is a notable use of anaphora – the repetition of a word at the beginning of successive lines – in lines 7-8, where “Done” is reiterated to emphasize the sense of safety and homeliness one experiences when in love and with the person they yearn for.
Rowing in Eden –
Ah – the Sea!
Might I but moor – tonight –
In thee!
The concluding stanza suggests that rowing across the sea would be paradise – “Eden” – if the speaker could spend even one night – tonight – with her beloved. The imagery of “mooring” within her beloved carries a hint of sexual suggestiveness, challenging traditional gender roles by having the female speaker enter the harbor of her lover. This passionate image serves as a fitting conclusion to this fervent poem. Here, we might draw a comparison with Robert Browning’s sensually charged “Meeting at Night”:
- “And the startled little waves that leap
- In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
- As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
- And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.”
In Browning’s poem, the phallic imagery of the “pushing prow” evokes the intimacy between the male speaker and the (presumably female) addressee. However, in Dickinson’s work, she longs to be “moored” in her beloved, casting herself as the boat (or prow) and the addressee as the harbor or “port.” The mention of “winds” in Dickinson’s second stanza implies that the speaker has endured emotional storms, feeling the pangs of unfulfilled love, and now craves the tranquility that comes from being with the one she desires.
Analysis
“Wild nights – Wild nights!” reveals the intense passion Dickinson can convey, reminding us that her poetry isn’t solely preoccupied with themes of death and despair. She is also a profound poet of longing and desire. Upon reading this poem, one might think of countless song lyrics that have emerged since: Dickinson seems to foreshadow or influence the yearning encapsulated in three-minute love songs, where the singer expresses a desire to be with their beloved, even if just for a fleeting moment.
The language of Dickinson’s compact poem and the form she employs perfectly capture the sense of exhilaration and anticipation associated with the thought of being with someone for whom one has deep feelings. The ecstasy of spending a night with them justifies the exclamation marks found in Dickinson’s opening line, as well as in lines 4, 8, 10, and 12. The repetitions further emphasize the speaker’s single-minded fixation on their object of desire: “Wild nights – Wild nights!” in the opening stanza, along with the reiteration in the third line; the anaphora of “Done with the” in lines 7-8; and the repetition of “thee,” the focus of the speaker’s longing, as the rhyming word in both the second and final lines of the poem.
Form
As Helen Vendler observes in her comprehensive study of Dickinson, the poem’s quatrain structure – Dickinson’s favored arrangement – cleverly disguises the fact that this is a piece crafted in rhyming quatrains. For instance, the first stanza could be rearranged as follows:
Wild nights – Wild nights! Were I with thee
Wild nights should be Our luxury!
The shorter lines, composed in dimeter (two feet per line), mirror the breathless urgency and desire, the quickening heartbeat, and the impatience to share passion with someone, all of which the poem yearns to express.