I Bring an Unaccustomed Wine
poem 132
I Bring an Unaccustomed Wine - meaning Summary
Offering Love, Met with Cold
Dickinson depicts an offered compassion or love as an "unaccustomed wine" refused by its intended recipient. The speaker brings comfort but finds the other cold and indifferent, and recognizes the futility of warming what has long been frozen. Rather than withdraw completely, she continues to carry the cup in case another thirsty person needs it, or in hope that one day someone will accept her gift when she finally "awake[s]."
Read Complete AnalysesI bring an unaccustomed wine To lips long parching Next to mine, And summon them to drink; Crackling with fever, they Essay, I turn my brimming eyes away, And come next hour to look. The hands still hug the tardy glass The lips I would have cooled, alas Are so superfluous Cold I would as soon attempt to warm The bosoms where the frost has lain Ages beneath the mould Some other thirsty there may be To whom this would have pointed me Had it remained to speak And so I always bear the cup If, haply, mine may be the drop Some pilgrim thirst to slake If, haply, any say to me Unto the little, unto me, When I at last awake.
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