Where every bird is bold to go
And bees abashless play,
The foreigner before he knocks
Must thrust the tears away.
Where every bird is bold to go
And bees abashless play,
The foreigner before he knocks
Must thrust the tears away.
Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Emily Dickinson better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.
“abashless” was not a word in my lexicon, but my knowledge of English word formation let me infer that it meant “not bashful” or “without bashfulness”. This caused a momentary pause to wonder what “bash” could be for “bashful” to mean “full of bash.” I later learned from the OED that this bash is formed from abash by loss of the initial a (the process is called aphesis); and that abash means “To destroy the self-possession or confidence of (any one), to put out of countenance, confound, discomfit, or check with a sudden consciousness of shame, presumption, error, or the like”.
However, this still leaves me unsure as to what meaning Emily Dickinson intended to convey. Perhaps it was “When one encounters a place of beauty and tranquility for the first time, one cannot but be overcome by emotion” – and perhaps not. Any thoughts?