It tossed – and tossed –

It tossed – and tossed – 
A little Brig I knew – o’ertook by Blast –
It spun – and spun –
And groped delirious, for Morn –

It slipped – and slipped –
As One that drunken – stept –
Its white foot tripped –
Then dropped from sight –

Ah, Brig – Good Night
To Crew and You –
The Ocean's Heart too smooth – too Blue –
To break for You –
746 (1863)

At first glance, this poem seems to simply describe a boat struggling against the ocean’s tide on a stormy night and its eventual shipwreck as both the boat and the crew are lost. The speaker seems to be retelling this story of a shipwreck that she heard about. It’s obvious that the poem’s speaker was not present for the tragedy yet is fully knowledgeable about its events. As with most of Dickinson’s poems, she has created something that, despite appearing simple, tackles a much deeper topic. This poem exemplifies the idea that humanity’s fate lies in the hands of nature. 

The main conflict is found in the final two lines of this poem and is deeply ironic. The “Ocean’s Heart” is said to have not broken for the brig, implying that if it had, the ship would have been spared from the fatal storm. Yet in a more literal sense, the ocean did break for the boat; the breaking waves are what ultimately sank the little brig. This irony shows a common theme in nature poetry: the fickleness of nature. The only way that the ship could have been saved (the ocean’s heart breaking for it and its crew) was the exact way that the boat sank. 

A boat fighting to survive the powerful
force of waves

Knickerbocker argues that although she is usually not seen as a serious “nature poet” because her view of it is “too cute,” Dickinson boldly makes an ethical appeal for how we should interact with nature. He claims that her use of figurative language and metaphors in her nature poems, shape the humanity’s relationship with nature. This poem exemplifies this by showing that while aspects of Dickinson’s nature are “cute” she also fully acknowledges, and maybe even understands, the true risks that nature presents to humans.

Dickinson’s use of the comparison of the boat to a drunk person furthers Knickerbocker’s claim that her figurative language supports an ethical argument. With the boat being a man-

made object as a symbol for humanity, describing it as a drunk person struggling to walk is a great way to show our connection to nature. The inability to fully assert control over not only yourself but your situation when intoxicated parallels man’s inability to have power over the strong force of nature. Just as the boat “groped delirious, for Morn –” we can easily envision a drunk person stumbling and slipping as they inevitably trip and fall. No matter how hard they try, it is unlikely that they could walk upright and straight without someone intervening to help them. Similar to humanity’s relationship to nature, we cannot simply assert our will over a more powerful force. In nature’s eyes, all of the human race is simply wandering around drunk trying to avoid falling or we’re a boat struggling to stay above the powerful waves; the only thing keeping us afloat is the fickle heart of the ocean.

Knickerbocker, Scott. “Dickinson's Ethical Artifice.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol. 15, no. 2, 2008, pp. 185-197. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/44086729.