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Dickinson, Emily - Like rain it sounded till it curved And then I knew ‘twas wind
Identifier
000104
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Practically all Emily Dickinson’s poems can be read as though they were literal descriptions, but they also tend to have a spiritual and figurative meaning. The following poem is superficially about a fairly dramatic storm. But wind and rain are both symbolic and wind is symbolic , the rain she is describing here might have been the rain of inspiration.
The symbolic meaning is made clear by the curving of the wind, the wheel of cloud, the coming of hosts and the use of wells and pools as the main beneficiaries of the rain.
A description of the experience
Like rain it sounded till it curved
And then I knew ‘twas wind
It walked as wet as any wave
But swept as dry as sand
When it had pushed itself away
To some remotest plain
A coming as of hosts was heard
That was indeed the rain
It filled the wells, it pleased the pools
It warbled in the road
It pulled the spigot from the hills
And let the floods abroad
It loosened acres, lifted seas
The sites of centres stirred
Then like Elijah rode away
Upon a wheel of cloud
The source of the experience
Dickinson, EmilyConcepts, symbols and science items
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
GriefLead poisoning
Suppressions
Communing with natureInherited genes
Reducing threats
Commonsteps
References
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson