“To pile like Thunder”: The Advantages of Reading Emily Dickinson’s Poetry from a Cognitive Perspective

Abstract:Emily Dickinson’s “To pile like Thunder” is a complex and puzzling poem that has received detailed commentary from both literary critics and linguists. In this article, we briefly examine how the poem’s prosodic elements of structure and sound relate to, and iconically simulate, its theme. In particular, we apply the principles of conceptual integration network theory, informally known as “blending,” to show how the blending model opens up the dynamic cognitive processes that underpin the poem’s metaphors. By revealing these processes, we are able to show how they build to a coherent account of a reader’s construal of what the poem does. Through this focus on the “how” and the “why” of a poem’s cognitive effects, our approach provides a robust and rigorous analysis that illuminates rather than controverts other interpretations. Our conclusion shows that Dickinson’s poem captures and enacts the consuming power of poetry and love as manifestations of divine force.