Dickinson's There is another sky
Another World Created by Art
Emily Dickinson’s “There is another sky” is an innovative, or American, sonnet. The lines are short, only 3 to 5 metric feet, and with Dickinson’s characteristic slant rime, the rime scheme is roughly, ABCBCDECFCGHIH. This innovative sonnet sections itself into two quatrains and a sestet, making it a gentle melding of the English and Italian sonnets.
First Quatrain: “There is another sky”
In the first quatrain, the speaker claims that in addition to the sky of the physical universe, there is an additional sky in existence. But this other sky is “ever serene and fair.” She then reports that there is also “another sunshine,” which is capable of shining through darkness in this other place.
Second Quatrain: “Never mind faded forests, Austin”
The speaker then directly addresses another person, telling him that he should ignore “faded forests,” and she calls the addressee by name, “Austin,” who happens to be the brother of the poet.
She then tells Austin also to ignore the “silent fields.” The reason he should ignore those faded forests and silent fields is that in this place to which she is inviting Austin, the “little forest” contains leaves that are perpetually green.
The speaker remains very mysterious about this place where the sky, sunshine, forest, fields, and leaves behave differently from the physical universe.
Sestet: “Here is a brighter garden”
The speaker now claims that the place to which she refers is “a brighter garden,” and this garden never experiences the killing effects of “frost.” Its flowers remain “unfading” while she listens pleasurably to “the bright bee hum.”
The final couplet is the invitation to her brother to come into this wondrous garden: “Prithee, my brother, / Into my garden come!”
Commentary
Of course, this little sonnet is one of Dickinson’s riddles. She never states explicitly that the garden is her poetry, and she is inviting her brother to read her poems.
She is implying throughout her sonnet that she has constructed a world where things can live untested by the molestations of the physical plane of life. The sky can remain “serene and fair.” And the sun can even shine through the darkness. Forests never die out, and the fields are always bursting with life; they never lie fallow as in the real world.
And the trees enjoy wearing green leaves forever. She knows all this, because she has created it. And like the master writer of the Shakespeare sonnets, she knows that she has fashioned out of crude nature an art that will provide pleasure in perpetuity. That she has the courage to invite her beloved brother into her world demonstrates the confidence she has in her creations.
Emily Dickinson
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