I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed
"I taste a liquor never brewed" is a poem written by American writer Emily Dickinson. Dickinson never titled the poem (known as #214), so it is commonly referred to by its first line.
The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s “I taste a liquor never brewed” is describing a mystical state that she experiences through her soul awareness; the state is so overwhelmingly uplifting that she feels as if she had become intoxicated by drinking alcohol. But there is vast difference between her spiritual intoxication and the literal, physical intoxication of drinking an inebriating beverage. The poem consists of four four-line stanzas. The second and fourth lines in each stanza rhyme, with the first rhyme pair “Pearl” and “Alcohol” being near or slant rhyme. The poem is #214 in Thomas H. Johnson’s The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.
The poem can also be interpreted as describing a physical state of being that is neither spiritual nor mystical. It can be seen as an ecstatic ode to the beauty and mystery of nature, or even to carnal passion. The speaker here is celebrating earthly delights--and says she hopes to do so till the day she dies.
Read more about I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed: I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed, First Stanza – “I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed”, Second Stanza – “Inebriate of Air – Am I –”, Third Stanza – “When ‘Landlords’ Turn The Drunken Bee”, Fourth Stanza – “Till Seraphs Swing Their Snowy Hats –”
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