“The Brain–is wider than the Sky—” by Emily Dickinson (1863)
The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and You—beside—
The Brain is deeper than the sea—
For—hold them—Blue to Blue—
The one the other will absorb—
As Sponges—Buckets—do—
The Brain is just the weight of God—
For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—
And they will differ—if they do—
As Syllable from Sound—
Emily Dickinson
The Brain- is wider than the sky by Emily Dickinson is a poem which tells us about how vast the human brain can be. What makes this piece of writing “literature” to me is the concept in which the author Emily Dickinson portrays the wonders of the human brain. Although it may seem to be a paradox, the vastness of information the brain is able to store and comprehend is larger than the sky, the depths and complexity of emotions and memories is deeper than the sea, and the possibility of creation is as great as the weight of God to man. The manner in which the author portrays the brain in all its glory and wonders make this piece of writing “literature”. Also, the structure of the poem also makes it “literature” to me. It is a short poem with only three stanzas, each stanza has four lines in them. the line with the highest number of words in it has eight words while the line with the lowest number of words in it contains only four words. The first letter of each word starting each line begins with a capital letter. The only punctuation in the poem is the Hyphen, which serves as both a comma and a full stop. One aspect of literature Jonathan Culler describes that is present in this poem is “literature as the ‘foregrounding’ of language”, the rhythmical repetition of sound in the first stanza Sky… Side… Beside, second stanza blue… do, and third stanza God… pound… sound. Culler stated that we deal with languages organized to attract attention to the linguistic structure