How the Old Mountains Drip with Sunset
poem 291
How the Old Mountains Drip with Sunset - meaning Summary
Sunset Transfigures the Landscape
The poem describes a speaker’s awe at a sunset that transforms natural and built landscapes into blazing color and then into dusk. Dickinson conveys the gradual extinguishing of light—mountains, steeples, fields, houses—while noting the strange, painterly quality of the scene. The speaker humbly insists she can barely name what she sees, invoking great artists (Titian, Domenichino) to suggest the vision exceeds human art and settles into a solitary night.
Read Complete AnalysesHow the old Mountains drip with Sunset How the Hemlocks burn How the Dun Brake is draped in Cinder By the Wizard Sun How the old Steeples hand the Scarlet Till the Ball is full Have I the lip of the Flamingo That I dare to tell? Then, how the Fire ebbs like Billows Touching all the Grass With a departing Sapphire feature As a Duchess passed How a small Dusk crawls on the Village Till the Houses blot And the odd Flambeau, no men carry Glimmer on the Street How it is Night in Nest and Kennel And where was the Wood Just a Dome of Abyss is Bowing Into Solitude These are the Visions flitted Guido Titian never told Domenichino dropped his pencil Paralyzed, with Gold
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