Poet of the poem, “The Cricket Sang”, Emily Dickinson is a well-known leading author in the 19th century and has been immensely successful in acquiring a position among American poets. She has also gained huge popularity for her bold, elegant, and artistic formulation. She astonishingly articulates her visualization which lethargically enhances the mind of the bibliophiles.
She was not privileged enough to attain her honour until her death, after which all of a sudden, her sister finds her enormous writings which carried Dickinson’s immeasurable delicate visionaries that remained unnoticed. Only seven verses among her numerous write-ups had the capability to achieve the stage of publication while she was alive but all of them vigorously failed to captivate the virtual platform of publication. Thus, it took immense time to circulate to a wider audience.
In the poem “The Cricket Sang,” Emily Dickinson very tenderly identifies the daily regime of every living thing exploring the succession from evening until the bleak and darkest part of the falling night. Thus, it is considered one of Dickinson’s unforgettable nature poems.
Table of Contents
The Cricket Sang: Structure and Rhyme scheme
The poem is comprised of three stanzas and Dickinson very minutely separates them providing it with a pattern of quatrains which means every stanza is comprised of four lines. She artistically designs the verse by systematically using the ABBB CCCD EEFE pattern. She astoundingly incorporates several rhyming schemes for acquiring readers’ attention.
Each stanza observes and beholds its individual structure of representation neglecting the concluding crossover of sounds in between the strophe. This appropriate conception considers the chronicles yet the initiation of progression beginning from dusk and formerly continues till the horrendous and darkest approach of the night. Probably this pattern can be referred to as a metrical scheme.
Dickinson admirably begins the first three lines of the verse by inducing iambic tetrameter which clearly suggests that it is comprised of two beats that have been artistically separated into four sets which depict that the first fall under an unstressed poetical scheme and equivalently the second is lethargically identified as a stressed scheme. The fourth line of the verse is logically formulated delicately incorporating iambic trimeter structurally codifying three different sets of two beats.
Dickinson never forgets to add something bold and authentic in every new stanza. Apparently, the first verse is remarkably different from the second or third stanza where the first two sentences are in iambic dimeter which further assisted wonderfully with two sets comprising two beats of rhyming schemes. Therefore, such a bewildering aesthetic structure successfully captivates the mind of the readers which helped Emily Dickinson’s writings to attain the wider sphere in such a short period of time.
The Cricket Sang: Summary
Emily Dickinson in her poem very placidly upholds the aesthetic routine immensely focusing on the simplistic imageries of the world. She astoundingly discloses the entire scenario while it transfigures from the day and enters into the world of darkness. Dickinson carefully introduces a speaker simply stating that as soon as the “Cricket sang,” the sun seems to set down paving the way for the moon to appear.
Dickinson discloses both these things in such a way as if they are entirely interrelated and are given a space to merge with one another. She tactfully incorporates the existence of a man who is found residing around the world after finishing their chore and putatively fastening up the ‘seam’ of the age. The speaker also states by upholding the aesthetic beauty of nature that once the evening advances automatically the fog begins to build up following the ‘Twilight’ which stands firmly and courteously like an immigrant.
It falls in uniting a time zone that neither acquires a position in the day nor obtains a visionary scenery at night. But Dickinson with her realistic approach tactfully formulates an interesting simile for stretching a comparison between the awakening twilight to that of a stranger who further fails to recognize which path should he gain approximately.
She artistically denotes the term correct lane to explain the readers’ thinking capability elaborating the simple scenario explaining the bibliophiles that the strangers fail to identify whether to accept or reject the path. The poem astoundingly concludes with the usage of exotic new phrases which initially provides the reader with a details idea of her sentiment following the emotional connectivity that the speaker of the poem “The Cricket Sang,” thoroughly transforms to wrapping the sphere in darkness.
Dickinson especially addresses the night in the poem and how it swallows the entire sun after a certain time period, covering the entire sphere in darkness and very efficiently she elaborates on the importance of the night. Once again dedicating all human souls she states that the night in the entire hemisphere appears as a purifier and an aspect of security and safety.
Thus, we can say that with the arrival of night, it certainly starts to provide a homely feeling which is quite aesthetic and delicate to repute accordingly for every human soul as it helps them to sustain a feeling of home.
The Cricket Sang: Analysis
Dickinson astoundingly grounds her visualization in the poem with the help of a speaker whom she has introduced successfully in the verse. The poem “The Cricket Sang” begins by addressing the first line which later on went familiar as it was been lethargically placed as the title of the poetry. The statement simply marks the setting of the sun which shined brightly in the morning.
The procedure by which Dickinson wonderfully adds the second line with the first makes it appear in such a manner as if the exotic song initially sung by the crickets provoked the sun to disable its shine and they are tied to one another congenitally. But this poem’s main focus does not rely on the delicate view of nature rather in the third line she willingly adds that all men, those who were working to earn their living wages were concluding their tasks “one by one” as the day have already come to an end.
The setting of the sun conveys a message to all human souls to prepare their minds for leaving the workspace by putting aside their hardships. She efficiently addresses everyone as the entire sphere firmly has the fixed customized evening. Therefore, she incorporates the visionary of a dying day to that of the varnishing of a ‘seam’ simultaneously in a piece of material, a fence, or any other fabric but lethargically everything reaches its conclusion with the rising of the sun in the next morning.
Dickinson very aesthetically articulates her poem explaining the advancement of time where the darkness has suddenly started to appear and the “low Grass” in the field is evidently crammed with the ‘Dew’ and the ‘twilight’ fills the surrounding land which tends to look balletic and charming.
She stands there politely and with the presence of such a blowing glow, she eventually turns amazed, and certainly, it is neither demanding nor overbearing but this time period of the day flawlessly exists. The speaker introduced by Dickinson describes it as a space that is stratified between day and night.
Dickinson with the help of a simile logically associates the term twilight with the uncanny who fails to provide an assurance of whether it will remain firmly or disappear one morning suddenly as it always existed in a constant mode of flux.
The concluding stanza has an invocation of several devices like caesura to enable the capability to break the lines into two halves and pauses are induced very efficiently to produce a dramatic sound eventually heading the verse to be identified as a final quatrain. Using a simplified pattern, she accomplishes her dashes whereas the structure and the hidden essence of the lines are indeed quite lyrical which definitely attracts the mind of the readers.
There are certain descriptive phrases that enable the readers to attain an intense perception of her belongings and sensations that she undergoes eventually with the setting of the sun. Her mind receives a feeling of ‘a vastness.’ The wisdom which lacks a face structure or a ‘name’ is not something that one can immediately understand as soon as it is being conducted or looked at profoundly.
It is beyond the attainment of human interaction and comprehension that further separates and identified in the formulation which is greeted without an unattached single ‘Face.’ Moreover, she has always maintained a tone that is peaceful.
She also adds the concluding lines of the poem that although the world swallows a feeling of immediacy and peace which is familiar with the emotion that one feels while they are residing safe and secured at their respective residence the hemisphere is also referred to as a home, securing similar feeling that a person undergoes immeasurably when she has received the attachment with her closed and tender one’s.
Such imaginative phrases simply enlighten and brighten the darkness of the night which is yet so dark but beneficial for every individual existing in the sphere.
Technique
Dickinson is very well renowned for the capitalization technique which immensely fills the mind of the bibliophiles with causes that eventually helped Dickinson to highlight certain parts of the poem equivalently enabling them to find an appropriate conclusion. Scholars failed to identify an exact measurement for her sudden capitalization of her authentic terms.
But the words she has incorporated are indeed appropriate and are registered as the most prominent lines with proper execution and meaning that refilled the readers’ minds with positivity and enthusiasm. The elements like ‘Face,’ ‘Name,’ ‘Home,’ and ‘Peace’ are quite efficiently evoked as if Dickinson has forced those terms to express some oscillation over the forthcoming of night.
FAQs
What is the theme of the poem ‘The Cricket Sang’?
The poem especially focuses on the daily routine of human beings following the simplistic view of the aesthetic and delicate nature.
Therefore, the theme of the poem is serenity and belongings behind the darkness.
Which technique is Emily Dickinson well known for?
Dickinson is popularly known for her unique capitalization technique which not only attracted the readers but also refilled their minds with purity and potentiality.