“They shut me up in Prose –” Summary

“They shut me up in Prose –” Themes

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  Social Repression and Imaginative Freedom

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  The Power of Poetry

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “They shut me up in Prose –”

• Line 1

  They shut me up in Prose –

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 2-4

  As when a little Girl
  They put me in the Closet –
  Because they liked me “still” –

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-6

  Still! Could themself have peeped –
  And seen my Brain – go round –

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-8

  They might as wise have lodged a Bird
  For Treason – in the Pound –

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-11

  Himself has but to will
  And easy as a Star
  Look down opon Captivity –

  

  

  

  

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• Line 12

  And laugh – No more have I –

  

  

  

  

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“They shut me up in Prose –” Symbols

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  The Bird

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  The Star

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“They shut me up in Prose –” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Analogy

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Anadiplosis

  

  

  

  

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• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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“They shut me up in Prose –” 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.

• Prose
• Peeped
• Lodged
• Treason
• Pound
• Opon
• Captivity

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “They shut me up in Prose –”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“They shut me up in Prose –” Speaker

“They shut me up in Prose –” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “They shut me up in Prose –”

More “They shut me up in Prose –” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Emily Dickinson Archive — View original manuscript versions of many of Dickinson’s poems and read more about her work at the Emily Dickinson Archive.

  • The Emily Dickinson Museum — Learn more about Dickinson’s life and work at the website of the Emily Dickinson Museum, which is located at Dickinson’s former home in Amherst, Massachusetts.

  • Dickinson Electronic Archives — Read Dickinson’s correspondence, critical articles about Dickinson’s work, and more at the Dickinson Electronic Archives.

  • Manuscript Version of “They shut me up in Prose—” — View the original manuscript of “They shut me up in Prose—” in Dickinson’s handwriting.

  • Biography of Emily Dickinson — Learn about Dickinson’s life and poetry, and read a range of her poems, through the Poetry Foundation.

• 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

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • 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 –

  • 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!