Publication Is the Auction

Publication Is the Auction - meaning Summary

Mind's Value Versus Market

Dickinson objects to treating thought as a commodity. She frames publication as an auction that can debase the mind, arguing poets would rather remain pure and unmarketed than sell their inner snow. Thought belongs first to its divine source, not to commercial illustration. The poem urges restraint: let spiritual gifts be distributed without turning human spirit into something measured by price or public sale.