“Publication — is the Auction” Summary

“Publication — is the Auction” Themes

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  Writing as Sacred and Publication as Degrading

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Publication — is the Auction”

• Lines 1-2

  Publication – is the Auction
  Of the Mind of Man –

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  Poverty – be justifying
  For so foul a thing

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Possibly – but We – would rather
  From Our Garret go
  White – unto the White Creator –
  Than invest – Our Snow –

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  Thought belong to Him who gave it –
  Then – to Him Who bear
  Its Corporeal illustration – sell
  The Royal Air –

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  In the Parcel – Be the Merchant
  Of the Heavenly Grace –
  But reduce no Human Spirit
  To Disgrace of Price –

  

  

  

  

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“Publication — is the Auction” Symbols

• 

  Snow/Whiteness

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“Publication — is the Auction” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Diacope

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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“Publication — is the Auction” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Auction
• Foul
• Justifying
• Garret
• Corporeal illustration
• Parcel
• Merchant
• Disgrace

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Publication — is the Auction”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Publication — is the Auction” Speaker

“Publication — is the Auction” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Publication — is the Auction”

More “Publication — is the Auction” Resources

• External Resources

  • Dickinson's Life and Work — Check out a biography of Dickison via the Poetry Foundation. 

  • The Poem in Dickinson's Hand — A scan of Dickinson's handwritten poem, from the Emily Dickinson Archive.

  • Dickinson's Friendship with Thomas Wentworth Higginson — This Atlantic article describes an in-person meeting between Dickinson and her friend and mentor Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who once discouraged her from publishing. 

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a recording of Dickinson's poem. 

  • "The Publication Question" — An introduction to Dickinson's fraught relationship with publication, via the Emily Dickinson Museum.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!