The poem
Wild Nights -- Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury!
Futile -- the Winds -- To a Heart in port -- Done with the Compass -- Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden -- Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor -- Tonight -- In Thee!
Wild Nights -- Wild Nights!
249Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Analysis
Wild Nights -- Wild Nights!: analysis
Introduction
"Wild Nights -- Wild Nights!" is a short love poem built on a wish. The speaker longs to spend stormy nights with an unnamed "thee" and imagines them as shared "luxury". The middle of the poem turns desire into sailing: a heart in port, with no more need of compass or chart. The end asks to moor "In Thee", but nothing has happened yet, because the longing stays conditional. The poem's heat comes from that distance.
Summary
The speaker opens by crying "Wild Nights" twice. The second line sets a condition: "Were I with thee". If the speaker were with the person addressed, these nights would be "Our luxury". They would be a pleasure the two share, storm and all. The stanza stops there, with the wish stated and the two people apart.
The second stanza turns to the sea and names neither person. The Winds are called "Futile" because they can do nothing to a heart already in port. That heart is "Done with the Compass" and "Done with the Chart". It no longer needs the tools for finding a way across water.
The third stanza begins with someone "Rowing in Eden". A cry follows: "Ah, the Sea!" The open water comes back in that cry, after the harbour of the stanza before. The last two lines return to wishing. The speaker asks to moor "Tonight", and the place of mooring is "In Thee". The poem ends on that exclamation, with the wish unanswered.
Themes and meaning
Desire here is desire for someone absent. The verbs all point away from fact: "Were I", "should be", "Might I but". The wild nights of the title are imagined, not reported. Readers disagree on this, as the comments below show, but the grammar favours longing over memory.
Wildness and safety meet in a paradox. The opening promises storm, yet the picture of fulfilment is a harbour. The Winds are "Futile" once the heart is in port. The wildness moves from the weather to the two people. In this reading, shelter is what makes the wild night possible.
Direction is given up. A compass and a chart are instruments of reckoning. "Done with" is said twice, with what sounds like relief. These tools stand for caution, planning and social rules. It is a "Heart" that no longer needs them, not a mind.
Innocence joins the body at the end. "Rowing in Eden" sets a physical, rhythmic labour inside the first garden, a place from before shame. The language is sexual, and "moor" and "In Thee" picture one body entering another. The poem gives no gender to the speaker or the person addressed. It also makes the speaker the boat that enters, which unsettles any fixed roles.
Tone
The poem opens at a shout. Two cries of "Wild Nights" and two exclamation marks make the first stanza breathless. "Our luxury" adds pleasure and a hint of indulgence to the excitement.
The second stanza is cooler. Its statements are short and flat, and "Futile" sounds like a verdict. "Done with" has the firmness of a decision already made.
The third stanza softens into wonder. "Ah, the Sea!" is the only sigh in the poem, delight with longing in it. "Might I but moor" is an old, courteous way of asking. The dashes around "Tonight" then make the request urgent. The tone ends poised between pleading and joy.
Form and structure
The poem has 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Lines run from 2 to 6 syllables. There is no regular metre. Most lines carry about two strong beats, and the opening line hits four stresses almost in a row.
One sound, heard in "thee", "be", "luxury", "Sea" and "Thee", holds the first and last stanzas together. The middle stanza has no full rhyme, though "port" and "Chart" echo each other. The last line is the shortest in the poem, so everything narrows to "In Thee".
Poetic devices
- repetition line 1
Wild Nights -- Wild Nights!
The doubled cry starts the poem at full pitch. The dash between the two makes the second sound like an answer to the first.- subjunctive mood line 2
Were I with thee
This brief clause makes the whole scene a wish. The speaker is not with the person addressed.- rhyme line 3
Wild Nights should be
The end word rhymes with thee in the line before, binding the nights to the person who would make them wild.- diction line 4
Our luxury!
A word for ease and excess is set against storm. The pronoun Our makes it the first shared thing in the poem.- inversion line 5
Futile -- the Winds
The verdict comes before the thing judged, and the verb is left out. The dash gives the dismissal a pause of scorn or calm.- extended metaphor line 6
To a Heart in port
The heart becomes a ship at rest. This begins the voyage language that runs to the last line.- anaphora line 7
Done with the Compass
The opening words repeat in the next line, so the rejection of guidance is made twice and sounds final.- symbol line 8
the Chart
A map of known waters stands for planning or rules. Being done with it means no longer steering by them.- allusion line 9
Rowing in Eden
Puts a boat and physical effort inside the biblical garden. The unlikely pairing makes the bliss both bodily and innocent.- exclamation line 10
Ah, the Sea!
A wordless sound followed by a name. It reopens the wide water just after the image of the harbour.- alliteration line 11
Might I but moor
The two m sounds slow the line and give the request a murmuring quality.- metaphor line 12
In Thee!
The person addressed becomes the harbour. The preposition In, in place of with or near, makes the final image intimate.
Words worth knowing
- thee
- An old intimate form of you, used here for closeness, not for distance or formality.
- luxury
- Rich pleasure or indulgence. The word once also carried a sense of lust, which may sit underneath it here.
- Chart
- A sailor's map of the sea, not a table of figures.
- moor
- To tie up or anchor a boat.
- Eden
- The garden of the Book of Genesis, used as a name for perfect, unashamed happiness.
Context
It is number 249 in the Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. It was the site's Poem of the Day on June 18, 2011.
What readers have said
- Audra Holland takes the poem to show that Dickinson, though solitary, had wild nights of her own. Audra Holland, 2004
- Joseph disagrees and thinks the poem is only Dickinson's conception of what such nights would be like. Joseph, 2004
- Ronald finds it full of un-experienced passion, an expression of the desire to be loved and the hope of overcoming a fear of people. Ronald, 2005
- neobuccaneer reads it as wishful desire for a man, and cannot decide whether the heart in port is the speaker or a man who may be unavailable. neobuccaneer, 2005
- Baptiste asks who can say it is a man at all, since the addressee could be a woman or something else, and never appears clearly in the text. Baptiste, 2005
- Federico reads it as a ship's journey lasting a lifetime, in which storms are futile to a heart that has found true love and a calm place to moor. Federico, 2006
Keep reading
Discover more of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
Readers
Reader discussion 15 comments
- Readers
- 15
- Stanzas quoted
- 3of 3
- Most quoted
- “Futile -- the Winds”3 readers
- Longest reading
- Marissa423 words
I used this poems as one of my favs in a report I was doing for school. I thinks that Dickinson can really relate the zeal of passionate emotion with this poem. I also believe that this poem shows that, even though Dickinson was in solitude most of her life, she had wild nights- for nothing is like a little lovemaking to make life a little sweeter.
One of the best love poems I've ever read. However, I disagree that Dickinson did actually have "wild nights"; I think that this poem is just her conception of what "wild nights" would be like.
She has a lovely way of expression in her free writting style. She describes the mood of the mind when it has made itself up to go out and have a 'wild night.'
This poem shows a lot of emotions and a lot of passion. It seems as though she had a few wild nights herself. I don't really understand all of her poems but the first time i read it, it made a lot of sense to me.
I dont know, I think maybe this is about the desire to be with an man. She uses "were I", "should be" and "luxury" as if this is more of a wishful state than real life. But it's "futile" and I'm not sure if she's the heart in port who is done with planning and plotting and she has decided that he's the one and she's done searching, already in her Eden - him. Or the man is the heart in port who may be taken or not available?
I think it's rather butch of her to want to moor (anchor herself) in him.
I think Joseph is right concerning the promiscuity of Emiliy Dickinson. You have to remember that she lived in the mid to late 1800's (one night stands and casual sex weren't as frequent as they are now) and you also have to consider her personality. She was highly private and she completely devoted herself to her writings. However, these very characteristcs may be the reason for writing this secret expression of…
Read the whole commentI think Joseph is right concerning the promiscuity of Emiliy Dickinson. You have to remember that she lived in the mid to late 1800's (one night stands and casual sex weren't as frequent as they are now) and you also have to consider her personality. She was highly private and she completely devoted herself to her writings. However, these very characteristcs may be the reason for writing this secret expression of desire for something she wants but theoretically can not want. I think this poem could very well be an expression of a sexually related desire, especially when looking at lines like "down with the compass, Down with the charts" (which sound more spontaneous and irrational, the way her wanting to be with a man would have been viewed by her society) but the line "Might I but moor tonight In thee" is a reference to being held and embrassed in the arms of a man, a safe place to rest. I must say that I like this poem because it humanizes Emily Dickison and it is universal. Some people might find it difficult to relate to some of the topics her poems deal with (not all but some) but "Wild Nights" is primal and common to all humans at some point. The poem is an impassioned expression of longing for adventure, for passion, for companionship, for escape. It rocks.
i am writing an essay bout 500 word on this poem and i need more illustration on wat it means, i understand bout her motives for wild nights but the whole sense of the poem is just way to analitical. i need more
This is one of the best poems I have ever read. One of her best love peoms...
I find Emily Dickenson's poem "Wild Nights" full of un-experienced passion. The kind of passion found in the arms of a lover but can not be found in a one night stand. The moral foundation of ED background would preclude her from such unacceptable behavior. If she indeed had such a relationship we would see her express the remorse that would result in lustful passion. She is truly expressing her desire to be loved and the hope that she may overcome her fear of people
Just for a few more reflexions...
Who can really say it is a man she speaks of ? It could be a woman, it could also be something else. The real subject toward which the poem is directed never really appear in the text and is ambiguous.
Life becomes so much sweeter for a person who is in love.
I tried to read the poem as a travel by ship which last as long as life. It could happen that "Wild nights" of storm came to break up the calm and make us feel "alive" with their ensemble of storming emotions, but these are futile to a heart in port who has found his true love and thus sails into the calm water of the Eden, certain to have a safe place where to moor.
In this poem I think Emily Dickinson speaks fairly clearly what she is talking about, especially when you read a selection from what Colonel Higginson wrote to his co-editor in 1891, when an edition of Emily Dickinson's poems was being prepared. He wrote: One poem only I dread a little to print--that wonderful 'Wild Nights,'--lest the malignant read into it more than that virgin recluse ever dreamed of putting…
Read the whole commentIn this poem I think Emily Dickinson speaks fairly clearly what she is talking about, especially when you read a selection from what Colonel Higginson wrote to his co-editor in 1891, when an edition of Emily Dickinson's poems was being prepared. He wrote:
One poem only I dread a little to print--that wonderful 'Wild Nights,'--lest the malignant read into it more than that virgin recluse ever dreamed of putting there.
The poem was not omitted, but it does show the narrow-mindedness involving sexuality at this time period, for even then one-night stands were common as they are today. Whether she participated in these activities, or ever had sex in her life, will of course always remain unknown, but this is my insight on the poem:
When she speaks of "Were I with thee" it sounds as though she is remembering a past time of having sex, or perhaps is just thinking wishfully of sex. She continues with "Wild nights should be our luxury" which sounds like maybe the man she is speaking about told her he was too busy to see her or something...then she says "Futile the winds to a heart in port" which I believe to mean basically that no one can stop a person or a "heart" in love...perhaps not even this man's wife? She then says "done with the compass, done with the chart" which maybe means that she is tired of rules and guidelines, or perhaps she is tired of how society views things; after all she did become a recluse, and disagreed greatly with society, especially along the lines of religion...
Anyway, she continues "rowing in Eden" which perhaps means something about passing through sin, or passing through knowledge, because as the bible reads, the Garden of Eden did not stay holy forever, and in fact contained sin and the knowledge of evil (as well as good, of course, but that is beside the point) So maybe she is saying how she would be gaining knowledge or sin. She finishes with "Might I but moor To-night in thee!" which perhaps she does not mean sexually at all (all you who's minds are deeply in the gutter! :-D) but perhaps more in a way of staying near him, or even in his house, or perhaps just feeling safe with him for just one night, against society...maybe having him be on her side about having sex, when all of society is against her? Well that's just my interpretation, anyway...good luck with whatever you're doing! Report, essay, pleasure reading, etc...
it is my fate to read this enchanting poem,when I have no sentiment to relish.blessed with the overwhelming storm of the boundless darkness,we will never be alone in the peaceful daylight
Josef Hamer
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