Poem XVIL by Emily Dickinson :: Poetry

Poem XVILEven though this poem is only two genuinely short paragraphs, it has a very strong meaning behind it that plenty be explained easily. What this poem is saying is that even through Dickinson has never seen the ocean, ever prayed to God, or ever g atomic number 53 to church, she can still calculate what the waves look like on the ocean, rolling over each other all day and all night. She can also imagine what its like to be one of gods people, having a great and loving connection with him. What shes saying is that she doesnt need to SEE something with her own eyeball to know the general idea of what it does. She can obviously 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 doesnt experience things first hand, she can use her super C sense to fill in the gaps of what she doesnt 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 scant(p) way out, a way to skip a few steps to get to the finish. We will try to fix the car or computer ourselves ahead 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 gestate that we can fill in the gaps with what we already know. Are we right in not looking at the instruction manual first? Sometimes besides 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.