18 pages • 36-minute read
There is no Frigate like a Book
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Symbols & Motifs
“prancing Poetry”
While the poem focuses primarily on the effects that poetry and literature can have on its potential readers, “There is no Frigate like a Book” also focuses on proper poetic form. The speaker’s reference to “prancing Poetry” (Line 4) suggests a particular attention to the rhythm and meter of a poetic work. Dickinson reflects this attention in the poem’s strict form and perfect iambic lines (See: Literary Devices). The iambic feet (consisting of one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable), meanwhile, mimics the horses’ prance.
Like the “prancing” horses that represent the poetic work, the speaker’s emphasis on poetry’s rhythm is connected with its mobility. Since iambic feet have their stress on the second syllable, they move the poem forward like a series of pulses. This prancing effect is a sonic embodiment of poetry’s ability to move like the horses.
War Machines
“There is no Frigate like a Book” draws a number of symbols from historic and contemporary war machines. The “[c]hariot” (Line 7) is a two-wheeled, open cart typically driven by two or more horses. The cart’s simplicity and light-weight construction allowed it to reach speeds faster than anything on its contemporary battlefield. Dating back to around 2000 BCE, the chariot is most commonly associated with ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome in the Western imagination. The “[c]ourser” (Line 3), likewise, was a fast and maneuverable light cavalry unit prevalent in the European Middle Ages.
The “[f]rigate” in the poem’s first line is contemporary to Dickinson and her first readers, but was undergoing changes around the time she wrote the poem. Prior to the middle of the 19th century, the term described fast, mobile ships typically used for scouting, escorting, and patrolling. Considering that the other vehicles that the speaker draws upon are noteworthy primarily for their speed and maneuverability, Dickinson is likely drawing from this earlier definition. By the 1850s, the term came to describe larger ironclad warships.
While each of these war machines impart their own character on the speaker’s description of literature, they are all light, maneuverable, and fast vehicles. These characteristics come to define the speaker’s conception of literary travel as a flexible, quick, and easy form of traveling to “[l]ands away” (Line 2).
“Lands away”
The “[l]ands away” that Dickinson’s speaker explores symbolizes both the movement to faraway lands and literature’s ability to allow one to escape from their current environment. The odd syntax of “take us Lands away” (Line 2) is nearly identical to the phrase “our lands away,” suggesting that the speaker’s travel is as much about removing their current location as it is about exploring new ones. Grammatically, the poem’s second line suggests that the speaker wants to be “away” from land altogether.
This movement away from physical land characterizes the poem’s emphasis on spiritual or mental travel. The speaker’s ability to disconnect from their material reality demonstrates how literature’s ability to create imaginary places can act as a form of escapism. The odd phrase “[l]ands away” refers to these imagined places away from physical and material concerns.
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