Question

I want summary of " A Thunderstorm" by Emily Dickinson

Answer 1

The poem was about how a thunderstorm starts out and explains the details of the thunderstorm. It explains in great detail how it begins, it tells you what happens during a thunderstorm, and what the damage of a thunderstorm is. The speaker is the author is watching the thunderstorm from afar begin and then describes it in great detail. The setting is during late in the afternoon and the sun is going down. The setting might be in a farmland or in a house on a large field. I think that this is the setting because it talks about gardens and bleared fields. Also, I think it is late in the afternoon, because it talks about the weird twilight.

The author’s use of the word pealing was strange to me. The word meant to ring loudly like bells. The feeling it invoked made me feel scared. The words are abstract because you can’t see or touch the sound of the thunder. The poem is free of clichés. The diction makes the poem have a more fearful tone and makes it more powerful. The poem’s tones are fearful, forceful, and calm. The words that set the tone were pealing thunder crash, plunges the blast and muttering sky. The tone changes from a fearful tone, to a more forceful tone. Then, it finally becomes calm. I know this because at first, it talks about the storm coming together. It makes the reader feel like something terrible is about to happen. Then, it talks about the pealing-thunder crash, making the reader think the thunderstorm is very powerful or forceful. At last, it talks about the drenching rain pouring down. Rain usually sets a calm mood.

The poem is 14 lines long and consists of 2 stanzas. The first stanza consists of 8 lines and the second stanza consists of 6 lines. There is a rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme is an end rhyme. The rhyme pattern is ABBACDDC, EFGGEF. The form of the pattern is closed because there is a little rhythm in the poem. There is a little alliteration like wild white flash, but not too much. The part where it says, “pealing thunder crash” is onomatopoeia because crash imitates the sound. There is personification in this poem, like the line “With the long roar of elm-trees swept and swayed,” This is personification because trees don’t roar. Also, another use of personification is “muttering sky”. The poet made this poem with a lot of imagery because of things like, “bleared fields and gardens disarrayed”. The withered gust-caught leaves give you a strong picture of dead leaves dancing in the wind, being blown around by the powerful winds.

The poet succeeds in recreating his experiences with us because he uses a lot of figurative language to describe his experiences. He has onomatopoeia to imitate the sounds. When he talks about the wild white flash, it sounds scary. The experience is intensely felt because it has good word choice and invokes a fearful feeling to the reader. It succeeds in sharpening the reader’s awareness because it explains how powerful a thunderstorm is. It teaches us not to underestimate nature’s wrath.