Wild Nights Wild Nights

The poem has many genres. It’s an epistolary poem––it addresses a particular person. Though the speaker doesn’t name the addressee in the poem, the unnamed person or figure is the audience: The poem is for them. As with many epistolary poems, the genre creates an intimate tone, leaving the reader feeling like they’re reading someone’s private correspondence. Due to the intimate tone and suggestive language, the poem works as an erotic poem. Erotic is the proper term because it’s sexual, but it’s not merely sexual: The speaker expresses desire that transcends physical attraction. Since the poem is short and conveys the speaker’s emotions, it qualifies as a lyric.

The speaker doesn’t have a name or identifying characteristics, and neither does the addressee. What defines the speaker is their exclamatory desire for the addressee. The poem features five exclamation marks, so the speaker isn’t shy about sharing their effusive feelings for the person.

The authorial context specifies the speaker and the addressee. In one reading, the speaker becomes Emily Dickinson, the person turns into Susan Huntington Dickinson, and the poem becomes an emblem of Emily’s erotic love for Susan. In another reading, the person Dickinson addresses might not be a person but God. In “On ‘Wild Nights’” (Poetry Society of America, undated), the contemporary American poet and translator Sarah Arvio declares, “[T]his poem was for a man, this one was for god.” Throughout her life, Dickinson was questioning but curious about religion. In Arvio’s reading, the poem is spiritual. If Dickinson could push herself to categorically believe in God, she could be with Him and have the rapture of a wild night and sea adventure.

The poem’s tone is intimate and exuberant. The thought of being with the addressee fills the speaker with excitement. The poem starts with a rush of repetition, “Wild night - Wild nights!” (Line 1). The two wild nights and the exclamation mark reinforce the speaker’s fervor for the addressee. They repeat wild nights for a third time, stating that if the two were together, “Wild nights should be / Our luxury!” (Lines 3-4). Stanza 1 starts and ends with an exclamation mark, advancing the ecstatic tone, turning “luxury” into a symbol of the speaker and addressee’s relationship. Together, they represent opulence.

The speaker’s passionate tone continues when they declare, “Futile - the winds - / To a Heart in port” (Lines 5-6). When the speaker is with the addressee, nothing can separate them. The winds are no match for the speaker and addressee’s staunch bond. The naval diction—terms like “winds and “port”—turn the relationship into a sea adventure. The addressee represents the sea, and when the speaker is with the addressee (in the sea), they’re at home (in port). The repetition of “Done” stresses the speaker’s reliance on the addressee as they emphatically rebuke “the Compass” and “the Chart” (Lines 7-8). As a pair, they can instruct one another; outside guidance from a compass or chart is superfluous.

The diction becomes religious when the speaker says, “Rowing in Eden” (Line 9). Eden refers to the Garden of Eden, the idyllic home of Adam and Eve. God expelled them after Eve, tricked by the Devil disguised as a serpent, ate fruit from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The presence of Eden adds credence to Arvio’s spiritual reading. If Dickinson and God could be together, they could exist in the heavenly Garden of Eden. At the same time, referencing Eden could turn the speaker and the addressee into Adam and Eve—they’re as close as the first humans in biblical history. In another reading, the speaker uses Eden to suggest a secular paradise. If the speaker and the addressee were together, it would be a figurative heaven instead of a religious one. As the speaker rows in Eden, Eden changes from a garden to a sea.

The sea is paradise because the sea is the addressee, and the addressee symbolizes Eden and “the Sea!” (Line 10). Transmuting a peaceful garden into a sea implies that the speaker’s heaven is more exciting, dangerous, and unexplored. The speaker laments, “Might I but moor - tonight - / In thee!” (Lines 11-12). The speaker continues to use naval diction. They want to “moor” in the addressee, as moor means to tie up. A person ties up their boat so the sea doesn’t wash it away. Ironically, Dickinson’s speaker wants to tie their boat to the sea. In a twist, the sea is their cornerstone: The addressee is the speaker’s foundation.

The image of the speaker linking themselves to the sea produces the theme of the power of close relationships. The bond between the speaker and the addressee is keen and strong. The intimacy generates the poem’s exuberant tone and turns the addressee into a wonderful sea. The language “In thee” (Line 12) also invokes a sexual metaphor, depending on how the poem is read or who the speaker and recipient are interpreted to be.

As the diction features three modal verbs—“Were” (Line 2), “should” (Line 3), “Might” (Line 11)—the poem addresses the theme of presence versus absence. Modal verbs indicate a possibility, and the potential for the addressee’s presence excites the speaker throughout the poem. Nevertheless, the addressee isn’t with the speaker; they’re absent, which necessitates the use of modal verbs.

The physical absence of the addressee and the repetition of wild nights yield another critical theme: the allure of frenzied feelings. The kinetic emotions compel the speaker to write the poem to the addressee. The speaker creates a passionate portrait of the addressee, and the zealous construct captivates them. The poem gives the speaker a chance to safely explore a frenzied state that’s not in reality, as the recipient of their intense adulation isn’t there.