I taste a liquor never brewed

Summary


"I taste a liquor never brewed" is a short poem by Emily Dickinson in which a speaker gets drunk on nature itself. Dew, air and endless summer days replace wine, while bees and butterflies stumble from flower to flower. The mood is giddy and playful, and the speaker refuses to stop even when the others give up. Heaven eventually leans out to watch the tiny, reeling tippler. It is a vivid, funny picture of pure delight in the natural world.

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I TASTE a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.

When landlords turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove’s door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!


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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive American poet of the 19th century, famous for her short, daring verses and unconventional dashes. This poem, written around 1861, was one of the few she saw published in her lifetime, appearing in the Springfield Republican in 1862 under the title "The May-Wine."