There is Another Sky

 

The title ‘There is another sky’ is the very first line of this piece. It is a reference to the sky of an imaginative world, a metaphorical reference to her poetry. Besides, the term “another” adds an out-worldly effect to this poem. It seems as if the poet is talking about a world that does not have a physical existence. Readers are aware of the world in which everyone lives. So, through the title, Dickinson refers to her poetry and compares it to an evergreen garden. She requests her brother Austin to come there and spend a few happy moments together.

Structure

Dickinson’s ‘There is another sky’ is a fourteen-line sonnet that is contained within a single stanza of text. These lines do not follow either of the two most famous sonnet rhyme schemes, those belonging to the Shakespearean sonnet and the Petrarchan sonnet. Rather, Dickinson uses a combination of half-rhymes and perfect rhymes in order to create a feeling of rhyme that runs throughout the text. They follow a loose pattern ABCBCDECFCGHIH. In regards to meter, the lines are closely related, with three to five metrical feet per line. 

There is Another Sky is a poem sent by the poet, Emily Dickinson, along with a letter to her brother,Austin,who was staying away from home. He might have faced some sadness or confusion and was unable to handle it alone. So, Emily's poem was intended to support him by presenting a brighter side of life. This poem is a sonnet comprising of two stanzas, one of eight lines called octave and another of six lines called sestet. In its presentation of nature and its glorification of the beauties of nature it resembles Shakespearean Sonnets. The tone of the poem is very encouraging as the poet compares two places, there and here and suggests her brother to shift from 'there' to here' to get solace. According to the poet, there' it might the darkness and gloom all around since that is the worldly place. She invites her brother to come 'here' which is a heavenly place with evergreen forests, unfading flowers and humming bees. There is positivity everywhere and that can easily help the brother to come out of the miseries he is troubled with. This ever-lasting appeal of the heavenly place that is, one's own home, gives the poem a hymn-like quality Emily Dickinson deliberately creates an image of a warm and peaceful garden in the second stanza, where there is no existence of forest that represents darkness and pain. This is to convince her brother the possible solution of his suffering and it is not difficult to achieve if he comes back from Boston to Amherst, their hometown, where they have spent a lot of happy times together At the end, she requested her brother to come back to her garden' of bliss. With short lines, bright images, she presented an ideal world where everything appeared favourable. There lied the appeal of the poem which could boost the morale of a person, by circumstances. Sad moments might happen in life, but remedies for them did exist. Emily, the loving sister, wanted to make her brother realise that with the help of this toshort hut beautiful poem, having an inspiring and hopeful tone. She invites her brother to come to her garden and that is a clear hint that this world she creates in her imagination.

Dickinson makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘There is another sky’. These include but are not limited to alliteration, enjambment, and metaphor.

Metaphor: The latter is the most important technique at work. It is seen throughout the entire poem. Dickinson constructed it as one long extended metaphor that compares her writing, and the world she creates with her pen, to a garden.

Metonymy: The “unfading flowers” are a metonym (or symbol) of an allusion to the way that time has no power over her written creations. 

Alliteration: occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same sound. For example, “faded forests” and “fields” in lines five and six.

Enjambment: Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One has to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence; For example, the transition between lines eleven and twelve: “In its unfading flowers/ I hear the bright bee hum”.

In the first four lines of ‘There is another sky,’ the speaker begins by making use of the line that later came to be used as the title. Dickinson’s poetry more often than not went without titles. They are usually known by the first line or by a number. The speaker suggests that there is “another sky” in addition to the sky that the listener is already familiar with. Under this sky, everything is “serene and fair”. Another sun shines there despite the fact that it’s “darkness there”. 

While it is not entirely clear at this point what these lines refer to, as the speaker progresses it becomes clear that she is describing her writing through an elaborate metaphysical conceit. While writing, she is able to create her own world where everything stays as she originally depicted it and is not subject to the ravages of time.

In the next quatrain, she addresses her brother, Austin. She asks this man to ignore the “faded forests” and the “silent fields” of the physical world. Rather, he should come to the little forest that she has created under the new sky. There, the “leaf is ever green”. This is an allusion to the way that life is sustained in this other world, nothing can touch it. This is emphasized further in the third quatrain.

The speaker continues to describe her garden in the third and final quatrain. In these lines, she uses the word “brighter” to compare the world she has created to the one that everyone lives in physically. It is a place where there never has been, nor will there be, “a frost”. This is an allusion to death, change, and anything negative that in the real world is a true risk.  The flowers are “unfading,” they live forever without ever losing their beauty. There are other forms of life as well, such as the “bright bee”.

These warm and bright images are concluded with the final couplet, or set of two lines at the end of a Shakespearean sonnet. They ask Austin, the poet’s brother, to again “come” to her garden. There, within her writing, he won’t have to be concerned with the dangers of the real world, aging, or change.

Critical Appreciation

Dickinson’s ‘There is another sky’ is a sonnet that taps on to several interpretations. Firstly, the tone of the poem guides readers to imagine a fairy-tale-like world. One has to imagine this place as it does not have any physical existence. The poet welcomes her brother to that place. Besides, to look at this poem from a different perspective one has to focus on the theme, timelessness of poetry. Through this poem, the poet metaphorically compares her literary world to an evergreen garden. So, the poem is in the form of a request to her brother to dive into her creation. Besides, the description of the garden is an allusion to the “Garden of Eden”, a biblical paradise described in Genesis 2-3.

Historical Context

The poem ‘There is another sky’ was first published in “Poems by Emily Dickinson, First Series”. It came to print in November 1890. This poem belongs to the pre-1861 writings of Dickinson. During that period, she mostly wrote on sentimental themes. Two of her earlier poetry are conventional lyrics and one is addressed to Austin. In this poem, she misses her brother and prays him to return to her. She refers to a metaphorical garden of which her brother is also aware. This poem also contains some Christian symbols that hint at the poet’s religious belief.