the might both of the sea and of men at this time

imagery of running from the waves up the beach with the tide chasing is really beautiful - you can picture it perfectly in your head

Again, seems like a sexual awakening of some kind... maybe on her first time being intimate with a man? it was beautiful and powerful like the sea ...but this line could also be read as negative. It touches on the idea of men at this time overpowering women - as a women, she is simply eaten up by the man, like she is no more than a pleasure to be enjoyed. Goes hand in hand with her seeming aversion to marriage... Kelly. “An Analysis of Marriage and Gender Roles in Emily Dickinson's Poetry and Life.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 2 Dec. 2013, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Marriage-in-Emily-Dickinsons-Poetry.

covering her entire body with "his" bodice seems especially suggestive b/c of how women's bodies were viewed at this time - wouldn't have been appropriate for a man to see her "bodice"

possible metaphor of the tide as a man, brings to mind a sense of some sort of sexual awakening for her - she was previously "unmoved" but the "Tide" (whether the actual tide or a person) has finally "moved" her

There's an overall sense of great, wild adventure in this poem - of letting loose, running unabashedly into the sea in your clothes, running the beaches with your dog - "mermaids" further this and bring an element of fantasy like great medieval romance adventures

reminds me of running along the beach as a kid with my cousins' dog early in the morning - such a peaceful image starting the poem off

I love this image so much!!! I also think it really reinforces Dickinson's love of nature and the same desire to truly be a part of the "natural" world we see in "A Bird came down the Walk --" In this example, she really is a part of nature: a dandelion being covered by dew (in this case, the sea or a lover). She really tried to relate her own life to the things she admired in nature and the sublime. Ash, Jackiey. “Nature Element : In Emily Dickinson Poetry.” Literature Analysis, Blogger, 30 Aug. 2022, https://www.englishliterature.info/2021/05/nature-element-emily-dickinson-poetry.html.

the stark difference between her and the sea (or her and a man) - she is aground and the water is out at sea; they're different forces that don't go together

the tide going back in - or a lover leaving? or (less gently) a man who wants to use her for her body retreating, scorned?

the sea cannot exist on dry land - the sea doesn't know dry land

dry land

In comparison to the vastness and greatness of the sea, she is so small, she may as well be a mouse. It's the same way all people are so small compared to nature and the sublime; we are just specks of life in the face of nature.

"From 1842 to 1900, more than half of all medicine sold contained cannabis as a top three ingredient." Emily was treated for various medical afflictions during this time...maybe a stretch but... C., Jake. “Medicinal Cannabis in the 1800s.” The Cannidote, The Cannidote, 8 Feb. 2021, https://www.thecannidote.com/post/medicinal-cannabis-in-the-1800s.

warships - poem was estimated to have been written around 1862, right after the start of the Civil War; Emily clearly had war on the mind.

basement = deeper sea (?)

I wonder what the purpose of the dog was in her mind?

https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Matthew%2023%3A23 From Matthew 23:23

https://www.withum.com/resources/evil-men-do/

From Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

the updated language is more clear and easier to understand now then the older versions

sounds like Death literally coming to get them

this change makes it seem like he didn't just give character to his guests outfits but to their actual internal character

what is the importance of the symbol of the clock? he writes about it for a while and points out that it has a strange effect on the people there

momentarily is more modern

shows how language changes through time, now litten would never be said but lighted might

ironic - they're obviously not thinking if they're having a huge gathering will the plague is going around

really shows the attitudes of the higher class in this time also gives the reader a sense of foreshadowing - these people will probably get what they deserve

her brother heard her in the tomb and maybe even planned to put her living in there - here he becomes more than just someone suffering from madness but a murderer

makes the reader wonder if maybe Usher knows something we (and the narrator) don't

makes the reader wonder if there actually was a sound like that (and maybe something supernatural is going on in this house), or if the narrator is also slowly falling into the madness his friend has

Poe builds suspense by opening with this and forcing the reader to wait and keep reading to find out what it is

his friends madness or mental illness acts like a physical disease, spreading to the narrator

marks a great change in his character and the direction of the story through the symbol of the luminous eye

he's paranoid and obsessive about his disease, like many of other Poe's characters from different stories

people's eyes seems to be sort of an obsession of Poe's

counters everything the narrator has said about the house and his friend so far, makes it seem almost like a show to gain his trust

the description of the atmosphere of the house and its land almost seems like foreshadowing - even though the narrator is pushing past it, the reader gets a feeling that something bad or evil will find him in the house

sets the mood, especially the word "oppressively," you can imagine the clouds almost suffocating the landscape with darkness