There is no Frigate like a Book

Emily Dickinson’s “There is no Frigate like a Book” highlights a reader’s ability to travel through the study of literature. Dickinson’s speaker presents literature as capable of more than allowing their reader to travel topographically. Starting in Dickinson’s contemporary period, the poem’s imagery progresses backward in time. The speaker suggests that poetry—and literature more generally—allows one to travel historically and to engage with the fundamental questions of the “Human Soul” (Line 8).

Dickinson’s poem is an extended metaphor that emphasizes literature’s ability to transport its reader (See: Literary Devices). Dickinson’s speaker uses literal vehicles as the vehicles for their metaphors. First, they compare a “[b]ook” to a “[f]rigate” (Line 1), a full-rigged warship notable for its agility. The speaker proceeds to compare “a [p]age” to a “[c]ourser” (Line 3) or horse, and literature more generally to a “[c]hariot” (Line 7). Each of these vehicles stand among the fastest in their category, especially compared to more traditional and common-place forms of travel such as walking or taking a coach. By comparing literature to these vehicles, Dickinson’s speaker positions reading among the most capable modes of topographical transportation.

The order in which the speaker chooses to make these comparisons suggests a secondary movement to the past.