I+never+saw+a+Moor-

Nikish Chauhan Kevin Chen  Han Chuan "Thomas" Kuo  Adrian Yu   **__I Never Saw A Moor-__** I never saw a moor; I never saw the sea, Yet know I how the heather looks And what a billow be.

 I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven. Yet certain am I of the spot As if the checks were given. -Emily Dickinson [|Poem]

[|Moor Pictures] Literary Devices: Repetition is used in stanzas one and two to win her argument in this syllogism (1,2,5). Simile is also used in stanza two to compare seats in a train like spots in heaven (7-8). Sound Devices: Assonance is shown in stanza one with m oo r, l oo ks, s ea, and b e (1-4). It is also shown in stanza two with G o d and sp o t, and heav en and giv en. Another sound device used in this poem is consonance in stanza two between heave n and certai n. Explication: “I Never Saw A Moor-” is a poem written by Emily Dickinson that is about not seeing things but believing in their existence. One should not only believe what they see, and instead have an abstract approach on visualizing life in general such as having faith in something they believe in, even though it has not been spectated yet. Dickinson strongly emphasizes this by using a religious example (5) to convey her message easily to the audience.  The speaker in this poem is speaking about her lack of sight towards inanimate objects (2), but then tells the audience of his or her abilities to know what these objects do and what they look like (3). After several examples, the speaker talks about God to affirm her message. The speaker believes that “checks” are given to people, as if they all have a spot in Heaven by which they enter (8). Dickinson focuses on that inability to see things but ability to believe in them. A great example to convey this message would be the classic “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”  “I Never Saw A Moor-” is a poem that consists of eight lines and two stanzas, four lines per stanza. The meter in the first two lines are congruent, however the rest of the poem has a wavering pattern of meter. However, there is a rhyme scheme of ABCB, DEFE in both the first and second stanzas respectively. This poem is sort of a syllogism, in that the speaker is proposing an argument to that age old dissonance about “seeing is believing.” The speaker promotes his or her religious belief by talking about not speaking with God, yet believing he or she has a spot in heaven (6-7).  Ultimately, her repetition is what succeeds her argument. For example, when you have a debacle with a friend, you usually repeat things to have them give up in exasperation, thus rendering you winner of the argument. Similarly, Dickinson intentionally repeats the beginnings of lines one, two, and five to be a victor of this battle of blind believers and visualizing non-believers.