There is no Frigate like a Book

Emily Dickinson is an essential figure in American literature. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830, Dickinson rarely left her childhood home. Despite this reclusion and lack of publications during her lifetime, Dickinson’s poetry is renowned for its unique poetic voice. Many of her works, including “There is no Frigate like a Book,” fit into a tradition of religious hymns and psalms. Unlike many American contemporaries like Ralph Waldo Emerson or Walt Whitman, who develop a romantic understanding of the natural world, Dickinson’s works often look inward.

“There is no Frigate like a Book” is a strong example of how Dickinson’s poetry looks inward. Full of idiosyncratic connections, the poem explores how books help their reader travel with their own imagination. The poem, unpublished and untitled at her death in 1886, is identified by its first line. Thomas H. Johnson has assigned the poem the number 1263 in his 1955 edition, and R. W. Franklin has assigned the poem the number 1286. Each editor has numbered the poems in what they judge to be chronological order.

Poet Biography

Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. As a young girl, Dickinson attended Amherst Academy before studying at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley between 1846 and 1847. Dickinson’s family was well-connected in Amherst, and she spent much of her early life making social calls. Dickinson attended the local Calvinist church between 1845 and 1852 when she was in her early twenties. Though Dickinson expressed religious skepticism, the form and content of many of her poems suggest that she was deeply influenced by religious hymns and psalms.

Dickinson’s mother became chronically ill in the mid-1850s, and Dickinson was required to take care of her. Dickinson corresponded with friends during this time but was nervous to leave her sick mother, and so she rarely left the house. Dickinson kept this solitary habit even after her mother passed away in 1882. By the 1880s, Dickinson was well-known in the community for her reclusive behavior. The few accounts of her during this time report her wearing white, a color normally reserved for funerals.

Dickinson’s work rarely reflects larger world events. None of her poems, for instance, comment on the American Civil War (1861-1865). Only 10 of her nearly 1,800 poems were published in her lifetime, and those 10 were modified to conform to contemporary poetic conventions. Three volumes of Dickinson’s poetry were published between 1890 and 1896, and “There is no Frigate like a Book” was first published in the last of these volumes. In 1955, a complete set of Dickinson’s poetry was published, retaining all the idiosyncrasies of her original manuscripts.

Poem Text

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us Lands away

Nor any Coursers like a Page

Of prancing Poetry –

This Traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of Toll –

How frugal is the Chariot

That bears the Human Soul –

Dickinson, Emily. “There is no Frigate like a Book.” 1896. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

Dickinson’s poem explores the idea that poetry allows its reader to explore new, unknown lands. The exploration begins with the speaker’s claim that “[t]here is no Frigate like a Book” (Line 1) for how the medium allows its readers to travel. The speaker continues this idea by comparing the pages of a book to “[c]oursers” (Line 3), or horses, that mimic the “prancing” (Line 4) rhythm of poetic feet.

The speaker further develops the idea of poetic travel by highlighting that poetic travel is inexpensive compared to physical travel. They state that “the poorest [may] take” (Line 5) trips using poetry without the burden of cost, and consider poetry as a “frugal [. . .] Chariot” (Line 7). The speaker ends the poem with the suggestion that this same chariot carries the “Human Soul” (Line 8).