18 pages • 36 minutes read
Emily DickinsonThere is no Frigate like a Book
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1866A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Poetry as a War Zone
“There is no Frigate like a Book” explores questions of history and self-knowledge central to the human experience. The speaker places poetry at the center of this exploration and does so by comparing the power of literature with the power of various war machines. The extended nature of these metaphors suggests a deep connection between the two things being compared.
The speaker communicates literature’s ability to take its readers “[l]ands away” by imagining literature as a “[f]rigate,” a “[c]ourser” and a “[c]hariot.” In each of these vehicles, the speaker imagines the reader as a passenger. Since each of these vehicles are designed for war zones or battlefields (See: Symbols & Motifs), they rarely carry civilian passengers. This suggests that the speaker places the reader in a combative position on a larger battlefield.
The stakes of reading literature are not the same as waging war, but both require one to survey or “[t]raverse” new territory. The word “traverse,” in this sense, means to cross and to study a landscape—skills essential to both understanding the topography of a battlefield and to orienting oneself in a new work of literature. By making these comparisons, Dickinson’s speaker suggests the study of literature can be arduous, even if it is not as expensive or physically taxing as traversing a battlefield.
Class and the Privilege of Travel
Unlike most of Dickinson’s poetry, “There is no Frigate like a Book” is deeply interested in larger socioeconomic concerns. One of the poem’s central messages revolves around how inexpensively one may travel using their imagination and a work of literature. Throughout history, the ability to travel to “[l]ands away” (Line 2) is a sign of economic privilege. Travel was not only more expensive in the 19th century due to inflation, but it sometimes took months to get to one’s destination due to the speed of travel. This prohibitive cost meant that middle and lower-income earners rarely traveled. When people of lower socioeconomic class did travel, the trips were often one-way and for the purpose of emigration.
“There is no Frigate” highlights how the ability to read allows one to travel “without oppress of Toll” (Line 6). Though Dickinson’s speaker does not recognize literacy itself as a privilege often only afforded to those higher in the socioeconomic hierarchy, the emphasis they place on the “frugal[ity]” (Line 7) of literary interpretation shows such hierarchies to be social constructions. If the vehicle that “bares the Human Soul” (Line 8) runs on literary capital rather than economic capital, this goes part of the way to deconstructing the socioeconomic hierarchy.
Dickinson’s speaker also puns on the word “poorest” (Line 5), which refers to poor health as much as it does to financial poverty. Unlike physical modes of travel, the literary travel that Dickinson’s speaker endorses has few physical limitations. Literary travel avoids both the physical and the financial “oppress of Toll” (Line 6).
Poetry’s Connection to the Human Soul
The idea of a connection between poetry and the soul is an essential theme of Dickinson’s larger body of work, and is clearly visible in “There is no Frigate like a Book.” The poem ends by comparing literature to a “[c]hariot / That bears the Human Soul” (Lines 7-8). Grammatically simple, these lines demonstrate the richness and depth of the relationship between literature and the human soul. Much of this richness comes from Dickinson’s choice of diction.
The word “bear” can be interpreted in a number of ways. A literal reading of the passage suggests that the chariot carries the soul or supports its weight. This reading makes the most sense given the travel metaphors used elsewhere in the poem. The word can also be interpreted to mean that the chariot “bears” (Line 8) the soul in the same way that a mother bears children. This relationship suggests that the chariot—or literature itself—came prior to the formation of the human soul and actually allowed the soul to develop. “Bear” also suggests the homophone “bare,” and implies that poetry has a capacity of revealing or uncovering truths about the human soul that it helped to create.
A similar play on “[t]oll” and “[s]oul” in the poem’s last end rhymes (See: Literary Devices) suggests that a certain amount of toll must come before the soul develops. This mirrors many Christian doctrines on the importance of suffering in redemption before the eyes of God. It is unlikely that Dickinson refers to physical suffering, given the poem’s deliberate emphasis on how literary travel is “[w]ithout oppress of Toll” (Line 6). Rather, the “toll” one pays to develop their soul is mental or spiritual. This is especially relevant given the work’s larger emphasis on travel. The speaker inverts conventional wisdom about how physical travel develops one’s character. By focusing on how mental travel through literature helps to develop—or create—one’s soul, the speaker suggests that physical travel does not develop one in the same way.
Related Titles
By Emily Dickinson
