Exultation is the going
Of an inland soul to sea,—
Past the houses, past the headlands,
Into deep eternity!
Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
The divine intoxication
Of the first league out from land?
Credits
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was an American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, widely regarded as one of the most original voices in 19th-century literature. Though she spent much of her life in deliberate seclusion, her poetry ranges boldly across themes of nature, death, and transcendence. "Setting Sail" is notable for its use of the sea as a metaphor for spiritual departure — striking given that Dickinson herself rarely, if ever, traveled far from home.
