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They shut me up in Prose –

“Prose,” which refers to writing that’s not poetry, is here a
POEM TEXT metaphor for the boring, restrictive, and “prosaic” codes of
society, including those that expect women (like the speaker) to
1 They shut me up in Prose – be quiet and obedient. When the speaker says that “[t]hey”
attempted to “shut [her] up in Prose,” then, she’s talking about
2 As when a little Girl
the way that both the people around her and society in general
3 They put me in the Closet –
have been eager to reign in her individuality.
4 Because they liked me “still” –
The speaker also remembers being “put in the Closet” as a
child, because “they liked [her] ‘still.’” In other words, the
5 Still! Could themself have peeped –
speaker’s family wanted the speaker to follow norms for girls
6 And seen my Brain – go round –
and be well-behaved. They literally confined the speaker in an
7 They might as wise have lodged a Bird attempt to restrain her energy and freedom, and the speaker
8 For Treason – in the Pound – feels like the world now figuratively does the same thing to her
as an adult. (This is almost certainly a reference to the fact that,
9 Himself has but to will in Dickinson’s time, women were expected to spend their time
10 And easy as a Star and energy caring for their husbands and children—not writing
11 Look down opon Captivity – poems.)
12 And laugh – No more have I – The speaker, though, easily escapes these forms of confinement
through her “Brain”—that is, through her ability to think and
imagine. Scoffing at the idea that she was ever truly “[s]till,” the
speaker imagines what “they” would have done, if, having
SUMMARY confined her, they could see how much her “Brain” continued to
think and “go round.” There was no way anyone could have
Society tries to hold me back with boring, restrictive
locked up her mind because the “Brain,” she insists, is always
conventions—much like how, when I was a little girl, my parents
free.
locked me in a closet because they wanted me to settle down.
The speaker then compares her mind to a “Bird” who people
Settle down—ha! If only they could have seen how my mind
foolishly try to constrain in a cage without a roof: the bird can
kept moving about. They might as well have punished a bird for
simply fly away, and “[l]ook down” over his former “Captivity.”
not following their rules by putting it in the pound.
The speaker suggests she too could “fly away” through her
That bird simply has to decide to leave, and, just as easily as a mind; no one can limit her ability to imagine other realities.
star looks down from the sky, he'll fly away and look back down
Ultimately, then, the poem suggests that societal repression
on the thing meant to keep him captive, laughing. I can set
can always be thwarted by the freedom and power of the
myself free just as easily.
imagination. The speaker even “laugh[s]” at attempts to hold
her captive, suggesting that societal restrictions are laughably
THEMES powerless compared to the power of one’s mind. The world
might think that it’s got the speaker under its control, but it can
never grasp all the thoughts swirling around in her imagination.
SOCIAL REPRESSION AND IMAGINATIVE
FREEDOM Where this theme appears in the poem:
The poem’s speaker feels constrained by social
• Lines 1-12
conventions (which she metaphorically calls “Prose”), and
compares this sense of confinement to being locked away as a
little girl so that she would be “still.” Even as society aims to THE POWER OF POETRY
repress her, however, the speaker laughs at the idea that
“They shut me up in Prose—” explores how people
anyone could imprison her rebellious, rambunctious mind. The
can find freedom through their imaginations, and, by
poem thus celebrates the power of the imagination, which
extension, through writing poetry. The speaker associates
offers freedom from the dull, rigid, and often sexist confines of
“Prose”—or any writing that is not poetry—with social
mainstream society.
restriction, suggesting that she could never feel free by writing

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in this form. By contrast, the poem implies that poetry is the to remember that the poet, Emily Dickinson, was a woman
true art of the imagination, allowing the writer genuine living in 19th-century New England. Women’s roles were
freedom and discovery. limited and tightly circumscribed in this world: they would be
The speaker says that “they”—meaning society at expected to marry and have children, and to be quiet and
large—attempted to “shut [her] up in Prose.” While the speaker obedient.
uses “Prose” as a metaphor for restrictive social norms, she also The “Prose” of social conventions, then, likely stands for all of
suggests that this literal form of writing is inherently boring and these codes of behavior. These conventions would attempt to
limiting—something that can only “shut [her] up” or imprison “shut” the speaker “up” literally, in limiting what she could do
her, or any writer. with her life, and figuratively, in the sense of silencing her. (As it
Importantly, prose is a way of writing used within everyday happens, Dickinson did not obey these conventions: she never
society, in everything from textbooks to legal documents. Prose married, and in her poetry, she subverted a range of cultural
is not only metaphorically connected to social conventions; it is norms throughout her life!)
also part of these conventions and helps to sustain them. Prose, The speaker, then, makes it clear from the outset that she has
then, the poem suggests, is not an art form that can allow for experienced confinement and constraint—or at least, attempts
true imaginative freedom, beyond the bounds of these to confine her. She associates this confinement with societal
conventions. conventions, and by extension with societal codes of behavior
By contrast, the poem implies that poetry—which is, in a sense, for women at the time Dickinson was writing.
the opposite of Prose—allows the speaker to move beyond Interestingly, though, the speaker also associates this sense of
these boring, restrictive conventions of daily life. Poetry, the restriction and limitation with prose writing itself, with all of the
speaker suggests, is the art form truly connected with the conventions of syntax and punctuation that go along with it.
imagination. The speaker illustrates this idea through the poem The speaker implies that she could never escape the restrictive
itself, leaping imaginatively from her own experiences of conventions of daily life by writing in prose; she can only do so
confinement, to those of a bird, and then a star. Only within through poetry.
poetry, the poem implies, are such quick imaginative leaps
possible. LINES 2-4
The poem’s line endings also reinforce this sense of poetic As when a little Girl
freedom: instead of ending sentences or lines with punctuation They put me in the Closet –
(as would be required by the conventions of prose), the speaker Because they liked me “still” –
uses dash lines, creating a sense of ongoing energy, openness, Using a simile
simile, the speaker compares the sense of restriction
and momentum. The poem as a whole, then, is not bound by the she feels in society to the literal confinement she experienced
rules governing prose. In breaking free of these rules, the poem as a child. The societal attempt to “shut [her] up,” the speaker
suggests that that poetry is boundless in its potential, allowing says, is a lot like what happened “when [she was] a little Girl”
the writer, too, to experience boundlessness and possibility. and her parents (referred to here as another “They”) “put [her]
in the Closet” because they wanted her to be "still."
Where this theme appears in the poem: In other words, the speaker’s family wanted her to settle down,
to follow societal conventions for girls and be quiet and well-
• Lines 1-12
behaved. They went so far as to literally put her in a “Closet” to
contain her energy and freedom, and this comparison creates a
vivid image of confinement and enclosure. It also suggests that
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS the speaker has been something of a rebel or free thinker since
childhood.
LINE 1
The par
parallelism
allelism of this stanza emphasizes the speaker's lack of
They shut me up in Prose – agency. In line 1, she says "They shut me"; later, it's "They put
The speaker says that “They”—meaning the people around her me," and finally "They liked me." The parallelism emphasizes the
and/or society as a whole—have attempted to “shut [her] up,” or parents’ physical control over the speaker during childhood,
imprison her, “in Prose.” Prose is any writing that is not poetry. and how all this locking up was done on behalf of what other
Here, the speaker uses “Prose” as a metaphor for all of the people wanted and expected of her.
boring, confining, and “prosaic” conventions of society. The The speaker, though, communicates the sense that even as a
speaker means that she has been “shut up” or confined by these child, she saw through all this. She puts the word “still” in
conventions. quotes, imbuing it with a sense of iron
ironyy; the quoted word
To understand what this means for the poem, it can be helpful sounds like something the speaker’s parents would have said,

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but also something that the speaker—and the reader—can see The speaker points out how futile and ridiculous it was to try to
through. By putting the word in quotes, the speaker suggests make her be "still" through an analogy
analogy. One might as well
that she never bought into this code of behavior. convict a “Bird” of “Treason,” or disloyalty to the government,
The ending of the stanza also reinforces this sense of the and then lock it up in a “Pound,” or a fenced area without a roof.
speaker resisting her confinement. Instead of ending the stanza Doing so would, of course, be completely absurd! No one
(and the sentence) with a period, the quatr
quatrain
ain ends with a dash, would expect a bird to obey human laws, and by extension the
which is characteristic of Dickinson's poetry. This dash creates speaker argues that no one should expect her mind to obey the
a sense of open-endedness and possibility and denies the restrictive social conventions around her. And, of course, the
sentence the closure. bird would be able to simply fly away—just as the speaker’s
mind can “fly away” and travel whatever it wants.
The poem also registers the speaker’s resistance to
confinement through its rh rhyme
yme scheme
scheme. While the stanza has The alliter
alliterativ
ativee /b/ sounds in “B Brain” and “B
Bird” (both of which
set up an ABCB rhyme scheme in this opening quatr quatrain
ain, “Girl” are also capitalized) reflects the fact that the bird here is a
and “still” are slant rh
rhymes
ymes. Instead of reaching a sense of symbol for the speaker's mind, and suggests an image of the
musical closure at the end of the stanza, th the reader is left speaker’s imagination easily soaring away from her
anticipating where the poem will go next. surroundings. The assonance of “miight” and “wiise,” meanwhile,
calls attention to the iron
ironyy of the words, since it is clear within
LINES 5-6 the context of the poem that the speaker’s parents are neither
Still! Could themself have peeped – mighty (in one meaning of the word “might”) nor wise: they can’t
And seen my Brain – go round – exert true control over the speaker, and they have no idea how
free she truly is!
The speaker begins the next stanza with a moment of
anadiplosis
anadiplosis, repeating the word “still”—this time as rhetorical In contrast to the opening stanza, this rhymes in this quatr
quatrain
ain
exclamation: “Still!” Readers can almost hear the "ha!" here; are full and clear: “round” and “pound” rhyme exactly with each
despite her parents thinking that she'd settled down after being other. This full rhyme creates some sense of musical closure
put in the closet, the speaker laughs at the idea that she ever (and enclosure) in the poem. Yet the speaker also continues to
truly was still. Sure, on the outside she might have seemed to convey resistance to this confinement through the ongoing use
quiet. But on the inside, it was a different story. of dashes, which propel the reader forward over the stanza’s
ending.
The speaker imagines what “themself” (meaning her parents)
would have done if they could have taken a peek into her mind, LINES 9-11
which kept on buzzing about despite her captivity. In describing
Himself has but to will
her "Brain" as going "round," the speaker links thought and
And easy as a Star
imagination to motion and freedom.
Look down opon Captivity –
Here, then, the poem juxtaposes the image of the “Closet,”
The speaker complicates her original analogy here:
which represents confinement, and the image of the speaker’s
“Brain,” which is clearly not restrained by any physical
• First, she compared her mind to a bird;
limitations. No one, the speaker implies, could have stopped her
• Now, she compares that bird (using a simile
simile) to a
from thinking and imagining whatever she wanted. Her body
star.
might have been "still," but her mind was not, and never would
be. These sequential comparisons create a sense of imaginative
The consonance of “Brrain n” and “rrounnd” reinforces the leaps on the page, enacting the sense of freedom—through
connection between the speaker’s mind and her freedom, or one’s imagination and through the art form of poetry—that the
the ability to “go round” wherever she pleased. The poem also speaker describes. It’s as though the speaker is showing the
makes use of a midline caesur
caesuraa in line 6, in the form of a dash reader how quickly and easily her mind can move in a poem!
between “Brain” and “go round.” This dash breaks up the line at
Beyond this subtle showing off, the speaker is making an
a rather awkward moment, perhaps reflecting the notion that
important point by building on the image of the bird, which
the speaker is going to do whatever she darn well pleases with
again is symbolic of her imagination, flying free of its
her thoughts and writing. The sudden stop and start created by
confinement. She says the bird has only to “will” it—or decide to
that dash also conveys the movement the speaker describes.
leave—and he can fly above this enclosure and, as easily “as a
LINES 7-8 Star” up in the sky looks down in the earth below, look down at
the cage that had been designed to hold him captive.
They might as wise have lodged a Bird
For Treason – in the Pound –
• Note how the speaker subtly personifies the bird in

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this description, calling attention to its “will” or
intention and ability to "laugh." This personification SYMBOLS
deepens the symbolic connection between the
speaker and the bird. THE BIRD
The image of the bird high in the sky suggests that the bird has The bird in the poem symbolizes the freedom and the
a perspective that those who tried to confine it can never share. power of the speaker's imagination. The speaker uses
Through the symbolic connection between the bird and the an analogy to compare her own confinement to that of a bird in
speaker’s brain, the speaker implies that her imagination can a “Pound”—a kind of fenced enclosure without a roof. The
rise above everything that is restrictive in her environment. speaker envisions the people around her foolishly attempting
to convict the bird of "Treason," or disloyalty to the
LINE 12 government. This would, of course, be very silly, and speaks to
And laugh – No more have I – how ridiculous the speaker feels it is that the world attempts to
reign in her thoughts.
The speaker imagines the “Bird,” like a star in the sky,
“[l]ook[ing] down” over the cage that had been designed to hold Of course, the bird only has to “will” it, or decide to leave, and
it captive. Looking down at this former “Captivity,” the speaker he can fly away into the sky. The speaker too, the poem
says, the bird would only “laugh.” suggests, can “fly” away from her restrictive circumstances,
through the imaginative power of her mind. The bird, then,
In this description, the speaker continues to personify the bird, speaks to the ease with which the speaker can escape her
imagining it “laugh[ing]” at the ridiculous attempt to keep it confinement, and the inner freedom she can find through her
from flying. As in the previous lines, this personification own will.
reinforces the connection between the speaker’s mind and the
bird. The speaker, too, would only “laugh” at any attempts to
Where this symbol appears in the poem:
constrain her thoughts and imagination. Like the bird, the
speaker has to do “No more” than “will” it, or decide to be free, • Lines 7-12: “They might as wise have lodged a Bird / For
and she will be. Just as the bird can fly away, she, too, can Treason – in the Pound – / Himself has but to will / And
escape her constraints through her imagination and her poetry. easy as a Star / Look down opon Captivity – / And laugh”
Reflecting this sense of “flying away” from convention and
constraint, the poem’s rhrhyme
yme scheme changes radically in this
THE STAR
final quatr
quatrain
ain. After the regular DEFE pattern of the second
stanza, this stanza creates an entirely new pattern of BGHH. In The star in the poem symbolizes distance and
other words, lines 9 and 10 don't rhyme with each other at all perspective. Set far up in the sky, it introduces a new
(though “will” in line 9 echoes line 4's “still.”), but lines 11 and 12 point of view into the poem. Looking down on earth from such a
form a rhyming couplet
couplet. height, all human activity—including those societal norms that
confine the speaker—would appear small and even
“Captivity” and “I” make a slant rh
rhyme
yme, to be fair, but they make
inconsequential.
a rhyme nonetheless. That final “I” stands in stark contrast to
the idea of “Captivity” and the confinement the speaker has In the poem, the speaker describes escaping her confinement
escaped. through her imagination. She compares this ability to escape to
a bird flying away, and then compares the bird to a star. By
At the same time, the reader unmistakably hears the difference
extension, then, the speaker compares herself to the star. She
in these final vowel sounds. The word “I,” then, which
suggests that through her mind, her imagination, and her
communicates the speaker’s individuality and independence,
poetry, she too can gain this kind of perspective. From such a
stands alone in the poem, creating a sense that the speaker has
“height,” those social norms that attempt to restrict her would
truly “will[ed]” herself free of both the social constraints and
seem laughably insignificant.
the “Prose” with which the poem began. Ending on the word "I"
brings the poem back to the speaker herself, centering her
Where this symbol appears in the poem:
experience in all this and reminding readers that despite
attempts to "shut" her "up in Prose," she's written this very • Lines 10-11: “And easy as a Star / Look down opon
poem. Captivity –”

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that tried to keep it captive. The speaker is saying
POETIC DEVICES that she can escape her own "Captivity" as easily as
this bird flies away from a roofless cage.
METAPHOR
The speaker treats “Prose,” which refers to any writing that is Writers use analogies to illustrate or explain a point. Here, that
not poetry, as a metaphor for restrictive and boring social point is that it's impossible to imprison one’s imagination.
norms. She says that “[t]hey,” meaning the people around her Neither physical walls nor social conventions can keep the mind
and society as a whole, attempt to “shut [her] up” within such captive.
conventions, limiting her energy and freedom. The speaker uses several instances of figur
figurativ
ativee language
To better understand this metaphor, it's helpful to remember within this analogy as well. First, when she describes her brain
that Dickinson was a woman living in 19th-century Amherst, “go[ing] round,” she isn't saying that her brain is literally moving
Massachusetts. She lived in a small, socially conservative, in circles. Instead, the poem uses this image of movement—like
religious town at a time when women’s roles were tightly the bird flying—to convey the sense of freedom the speaker felt
circumscribed: they were expected to marry and have children, despite being stuck in a closet.
not be poets or artists, and they were also expected to be quiet As she extends the analogy, the speaker also uses a simile to
and obedient. Dickinson chafed against these expectations, and compare the bird flying away to a “star” that looks down from
one could well imagine that she felt “shut up” by such a context! the sky. The simile helps the reader to imagine just how far the
Within the poem, the metaphor implies that the speaker found bird—and by extension, the speaker’s imagination—can go
societal conventions dull and confining. The metaphor connects despite attempts to confine it.
these social confinements with literal prose, which the speaker
suggests is artistically confining. Since prose is a type of writing Where Analogy appears in the poem:
associated with everyday life, the metaphor implies that the
• Lines 7-12: “They might as wise have lodged a Bird / For
speaker could never escape the limitations of everyday life by
Treason – in the Pound – / Himself has but to will / And
writing in prose. Instead, the poem implies that poetry is the art
easy as a Star / Look down opon Captivity – / And laugh
form most deeply connected to the imagination, allowing the
–”
speaker to escape the bounds of society and find true,
imaginative liberation.
SIMILE
Where Metaphor appears in the poem: The poem includes two similes to illustrate the speaker’s sense
of both confinement and freedom. First, the speaker uses a
• Line 1: “They shut me up in Prose –” simile to compare the metaphorical imprisonment she
experiences in society to the literal confinement she
ANALOGY experienced as a child:
The speaker uses an analogy to illustrate the impossibility of
ever locking up her mind. The speaker says that those who once • Society tries to “shut [the speaker] up” in “Prose” (a
put the speaker "in the Closet" might as well have punished a metaphor for boring social norms), just as, when she
bird for "Treason" by putting it in a “Pound.” (Note that, in was a child, her parents or some other caregiver put
Dickinson's day, a pound was a roofless outdoor enclosure for the speaker “in the Closet” because they wanted her
stray livestock—not a building for stray pets!) to be quiet and well-behaved.
• The simile shows readers how society's insistence
The bird represents the speaker's mind/imagination in this that the speaker be quiet and obedient (and perhaps
analogy, which relies on the following ideas: that she stop spending so much time writing poetry)
feels remarkably limiting and restrictive.
1. Charging a bird with treason, or disloyalty to the
government, is ridiculous; a bird isn't beholden to Yet the speaker also shows how these attempts to confine her
human society's rules! Similarly, the speaker can could never succeed through an analogy in which she compares
think and imagine whatever she wants; society can't her mind to a bird in a roofless cage. Using another simile, she
police her thoughts or punish her just for being says that this bird (and, by extension, the speaker's mind) could
different.
look down on its former “Captivity” just as easily as a star can
2. Putting a bird in a "Pound" is also ridiculous,
look down from the sky.
because the bird could just fly away. All the bird
would have to do is "will" it, and it could soar above
• In a sense, this second simile in the poem (where the
this "Pound" and look back down upon the structure
speaker compares the bird to the star) can be read

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as a reply to the first. orders, the speaker implies here, when in reality, as the next
• The second simile illustrates just how far the lines will show, her mind kept churning. This moment of
speaker's mind can travel, moving well beyond the repetition thus emphasizes the gap between how others
bounds of her surroundings and into the open, free wanted the speaker to be—still, quiet, well-behaved—and the
space of her imagination. reality of her untamable mind. The fact that the repetition
occurs across a full stanza break reinforces that distance.
Where Simile appears in the poem:
Where Anadiplosis appears in the poem:
• Lines 1-4: “They shut me up in Prose – / As when a little
Girl / They put me in the Closet – / Because they liked • Line 4: ““still””
me “still” –” • Line 5: “Still!”
• Lines 9-12: “Himself has but to will / And easy as a Star /
Look down opon Captivity – / And laugh –” JUXTAPOSITION
Throughout the poem, the speaker juxtaposes confinement and
PERSONIFICATION freedom, stillness and movement, and physical and mental
The speaker personifies both the bird and the star in the poem. worlds.
She emphasizes the bird’s “will,” or agency, through which it can In the poem's first stanza, she focuses on confinement and
decide to fly away from the fenced area where it has been kept. stillness:
She also imagines both the bird and the star looking down from
the sky at these human forms of confinement. Both the bird • When the speaker describes having been “shut […]
and the star, she says, could simply “laugh” at these ridiculous up” in “Prose” and put away as a child “in the Closet,”
attempts to hold the bird captive. these images of enclosure vividly depict the
These instances of personification reinforce the connection confinement the speaker has endured.
between the bird, the star, and the speaker’s imagination. By • The image of the “Closet” in particular conveys a
personifying the bird, the poem helps the reader more clearly small, dark space, where the speaker has been put in
imagine the speaker’s mind easily flying free from her physical order to make her be “still” and well-behaved.
confinement. The reader can envision the speaker's
imagination rising above society's constraints and then looking In the next stanza, the speaker juxtaposes this stillness against
back down on them through the lens of the speaker's own art. the insistent movement of the speaker's "Brain," which the
She too, the poem suggests, can just “laugh” at these attempts speaker describes as “go[ing] round”:
to confine her.
• Whereas the first stanza relied on stillness, then, the
poem now evokes movement and boundless energy.
Where P
Personification
ersonification appears in the poem:
• The speaker thus also juxtaposes her inner world
• Lines 9-12: “Himself has but to will / And easy as a Star / with the physical reality of the stuffy closet, and in
Look down opon Captivity – / And laugh –” doing so highlights the power of the mind and
imagination.
ANADIPLOSIS • The bird analogy makes the juxtaposition here all
the sharper: readers can envision the animal quickly
The speaker uses anadiplosis at the close of the first stanza, flapping its wings and soaring out of its roofless
ending line 4 with the word "still" and then starting line 5–and cage.
the next stanza—with that exact same word.
The first time the speaker says "still," she's talking about the Finally, the speaker describes a “Star” in the night sky looking
way that her parents or some other caregivers “liked [her]” to "down" on the world. This creates an image of distance and
behave. She notably puts the word “still” in quotation marks, perspective that feels incredibly far away from the closet of the
suggesting that this is what she was told to be. Even as a child, first stanza. The vastness of the night sky contrasts with the
readers get the sense that the speaker rolled her eyes at the suffocating restrictions of the world below, and through this
idea that she had to act a certain way. juxtaposition the speaker highlights sense of boundlessness,
When the speaker repeats the word “still” at the start of the freedom, and possibility that her imagination offers her.
second stanza, she does so as a kind of rhetorical exclamation.
“Still!” she says, the exclamation mark suggesting the speaker Where Juxtaposition appears in the poem:
scoffing or laughing at the very idea of being quiet and • Lines 1-12
obedient. People only thought that she was following their

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ENJAMBMENT This soft alliteration conveys the sense that the bird, the star,
The poem uses enjambment and end-stopped lines to subtly and, by extension, the speaker don’t have to fear their former
evoke the contrast between freedom and confinement. confinement. Instead, they can regard it from a distance, and
“laugh” at these attempts to keep them “still.”
The majority of the poem's lines are end-stopped, especially in
its first half, and this lends the poem a measured, even pace
Where Alliter
Alliteration
ation appears in the poem:
overall. One could even read the end-stopped lines as being
“well-behaved” (in a grammatical sense), just as society wants • Line 6: “Brain”
the speaker to be. This section of the poem focuses on attempts • Line 7: “Bird”
to confine the speaker, so it makes sense that the lines would • Line 11: “Look”
feel somewhat enclosed. • Line 12: “laugh”
At the same time, the poem also resists this end-stopping. For
one thing, the frequent use of dashes leaves the reader without ASSONANCE
a sense of closure and finality, despite the implied pauses at the The poem contains several moments of assonance that create
end of many lines. Dashes create a sense of energy, freedom, music and emphasize the difference between the speaker and
and momentum, in keeping with the speaker’s own imaginative those who would confine her. This assonance comes in the
freedom and the movement the poem describes. second stanza, where long /ee/ sounds connect “pee eeped,”
And, of course, the poem also includes more moments of “see
een,” and “trea
eason” and long /i/ sounds link “miight” and “wiise.”
enjambment that speed things up as the speaker moves from All this assonance makes the second stanza feel particularly
the outside world and into her own mind. The most striking musical. The first stanza, by contrast, doesn't contain any
enjambment comes in line 7: assonance (and even its sole end rhyme is only a slant rh rhyme
yme:
"girl"/"still"). This makes sense on a thematic level, given that
They might as wise have lodged a Bird the first stanza is about the speaker being "shut up" and the
For Treason – in the Pound – second is about her powerful mind and swirling imagination.
As the speaker moves from the strict outside world of "Prose"
Much like the dash lines elsewhere in the poem, this and into her own "Brain," the poem gets more poetic. The
enjambment pushes the reader forward over the line break. It alliter
alliteration
ation of /b/ sounds in this stanza with "Brain" and "Bird"
mirrors the line's point too: that the “bird”—and the speaker’s add to this boost in poetic volume as well.
mind—can easily escape attempts at confinement.
Though many of the line endings here are ambiguous, the final Where Assonance appears in the poem:
stanza contains enjambment as well that again pulls the reader
forward and evokes the speaker's internal sense of freedom. • Line 5: “peeped”
• Line 6: “seen”
• Line 7: “might,” “wise”
Where Enjambment appears in the poem:
• Line 8: “Treason”
• Lines 2-3: “Girl / They”
• Lines 7-8: “Bird / For”
• Lines 9-10: “will / And” VOCABULARY
• Lines 10-11: “Star / Look”
Prose (Line 1) - Any writing that is not poetry.
ALLITERATION Peeped (Line 5) - Looked into., especially as one might through
The poem uses alliter
alliteration
ation very sparingly, making the device all a partly open door or other slight opening.
the more striking when it does appear. In the second quatr
quatrain
ain, Lodged (Line 7) - To “lodge” has different meanings, but there
for instance, bold /b/ sounds connect “BBrain” and “BBird.” (The are two relevant meanings of the word in the poem. First, to
capitalization of both words also draws attention to this “lodge” something means to fix it firmly in place; the speaker
connection.) This alliteration reinforces the idea that the imagines people attempting to anchor or fix the bird in place
speaker’s “Brain”—her mind—is like a “Bird,” because she can within a caged area. To “lodge” also means to reside somewhere
easily escape confinement and “fly” wherever she wants to temporarily. In the poem, the speaker uses this meaning
through her imagination. somewhat ironically
ironically, as she imagines a bird being “lodged” in a
Similarly, when the speaker describes the bird and the star “Pound” as a person might “lodge” at an inn.
looking down from the sky and “laugh[ing]” at the bird’s former Treason (Line 8) - A crime that involves disloyalty to or betrayal
“Captivity,” alliterative /l/ sounds connect “[ll]ook” and “llaugh.” of one’s government.

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Pound (Line 8) - In Dickinson's time, a "pound" referred to a has an extra unstressed syllable dangling at its end:
fenced or caged outdoor area without a roof. It was a place for
stay livestock, rather than a building for animals like cats and They put | me in | the Clos
Closet –
dogs.
Opon (Line 11) - An archaic version of “upon.” And line 11 has two extra beats, for a total of eight syllables
(though some readers might smoosh the syllables of "Captivity"
Captivity (Line 11) - The state of being confined or imprisoned.
together a bit):

Look down | opon

pon | Captiv
tiv- | ity –
FORM, METER, & RHYME
FORM While variations like this are pretty common in poetry, it's
interesting that both of these lines end on words related to
“They shut me up in Prose—” is made up of three quatr
quatrains
ains, or confinement ("Closet" and "Captivity"). That both have extra
four-line stanzas. Quatrains are pretty standard for Dickinson's syllables in them might suggest the speaker struggling against
poetry. Here, they give the poem a measured, even shape. this captivity.
On the one hand, they might evoke containment—their four Finally, the poem’s seventh line is again eight syllables long,
lines suggesting the four walls of a room, for instance. Just as making it iambic tetrameter (meaning it has four, rather than
importantly, though, the poem also radically resists the three, iambs):
containment of its form. Instead of ending sentences, lines, or
stanzas with periods, the speaker turns to dashes throughout. They might | as wise | have lodged | a Bird
This is again very common in Dickinson's poetry, and suggests
are resistance to regular rules of grammar and syntax.
It's again as though the speaker is rebelling against the poem's
Where conventional punctuation, like commas or periods, metrical constraints, with the extra foot here suggesting the
would bring the reader to a partial or full stop, these dashes bird's power to escape its cage.
propel the reader forward over the ends of lines and stanzas.
These syllabic patterns also allude to a kind of meter that was
The poem, then, enacts what the speaker describes: a
important in Dickinson’s time: hymn meter, or the typical meter
movement out of containment and enclosure, and toward
used in religious hymns. Hymns often used what was called
freedom and possibility. The poem’s final dash line, which short meter (repeating lines of six syllables) and common meter
occurs right after the last word, “I” creates a sense of the (lines alternating between six and eight syllables in length).
speaker herself flying out of the poem, reinforcing the idea that
the speaker is bound neither by societal convention nor by the By drawing on hymn meter, as Dickinson did in many of her
typical strictures of “Prose.” poems, the poem nods to important social conventions of the
time (as the word "hymn" suggests, many poems using this
METER meter were tied to religion). Just as importantly, though, the
The poem is primarily written in iambs
iambs, a type of metrical foot in poem also diverges from the set meter of hymns. It creates its
which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. own pattern. Through its meter, then, the poem subtly
Most lines have three iambs, making the overarching meter illustrates what the speaker describes, as it acknowledges
here iambic trimeter. Consider, for example, the poem's first social conventions yet moves beyond them to create its own
two lines: music.

RHYME SCHEME
They shut | me up | in Prose
Prose—
As when | a lit
lit- | tle Girl “They shut me up in Prose—” has an interesting rh
rhyme
yme scheme
that follows this pattern:
The poem also incorporates variation into this pattern. For ABCB DEFE BGHH
example, the second stanza begins with a stressed syllable, in Both the first and second quatr
quatrain
ain adhere to a regular ABCB
the word, “Still!” This stress calls attention to the word and its pattern: “Girl” and “still” rhyme in the first quatrain, and “round”
repetition, just as the speaker begins to describe how she and “Pound” rhyme in the second. This fixed rhyme scheme
wasn’t still at all: conveys evenness and containment; each quatrain, ending on a
closing rhyme sound, creates a kind of enclosure. The rhyme
Still
Still! Could | themself
self | have peeped – scheme, then, can be read as illustrating the confinement the
speaker has experienced.
The poem also varies its rhythm by changing up the number of
Importantly, though, the poem introduces variation into this
syllables in the third line in every stanza. Line 3, for example,

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fixed pattern. Note that in the first quatrain, “Girl” and “still” are
not complete rhymes, but slant rh rhymes
ymes. From the very SETTING
beginning, then, the poem introduces an element of resistance
The speaker compares the feeling of being restricted by society
to the rhyme scheme’s containment, suggesting that even as a
to being put in a closet as a child, so the setting can be thought
“Girl,” the speaker was never truly “still.”
of, in part, as that closet itself. The reader can imagine the
As the speaker describes escaping this confinement entirely speaker enclosed in this dark, limiting space, which lends a
through her imagination, the rhyme scheme also changes sense of claustrophobia to the poem's opening lines.
dramatically, with the last quatrain following a different
As the poem progresses, however, the speaker breaks free of
pattern:
this setting, and the confinement that it represents, through
her imagination. The poem's setting thus moves from the closet
• Here, the first line ends with a B ending: “will”
itself into the speaker's mind, where her imagination allows her
rhymes with “still” from the opening stanza.
to transcend all physical limitations. She describes a bird flying
• Then the poem includes the new G rhyme sound of
free of a “Pound,” or fenced enclosure without a roof, and then
“Star.”
imagines a “Star” in the sky looking down over the outdoor
• The poem closes with what can be read as a rhyming
couplet
couplet, with “Captivity” and “I” creating a sound scene. When the speaker escapes confinement through her
close to rhyme. imagination, then, the setting of the poem moves into the
natural world, a place unbound by social convention. Here, the
Even here, though, the reader unavoidably hears the difference bird, the star, and the speaker’s mind can move freely.
between the two sounds, so that the “I” at the poem’s ending
creates its own, new line ending, shifting away from the
“Captivity” that came just before. The poem’s rhyme scheme,
CONTEXT
then, helps to convey what the speaker describes: a movement
LITERARY CONTEXT
out of containment and enclosure, toward imaginative, and
musical, freedom. Emily Dickinson's work stood apart from the literary
establishment of her day in terms of both form and content.
Though she is now famous for her use of slant rh rhymes
ymes,
SPEAKER idiosyncratic punctuation, loose meter
meter, and unconventional
capitalization, these were quite innovative for her time. Her
Several aspects of the poem suggest that the speaker is the poems are also filled with unique and striking imagery and
poet Emily Dickinson herself: figur
figurativ
ativee language
language, as well as deeply personal considerations
of nature, faith, and death. And despite being notoriously
1. The reader knows that the speaker is female, since reclusive, she found a sense of wonder and freedom in her
she talks about being “a little Girl.” writing that she celebrates here and elsewhere; take "II dwell in
2. The poem also describes the restrictive Possibility
ossibility," where, as in this poem, Dickinson rejects the
circumstances in which the speaker lives: she restrictions of stodgy "Prose" in favor of the freedom and
describes being “shut […] up” in the boring “Prose” of "possibility" of the poetic imagination.
societal conventions. Dickinson herself chafed
against the oppressive social and gender norms of Though Dickinson published only a handful of poems during
her era. her lifetime, it would be a mistake to view her only as a literary
3. Finally, the rejection of "Prose" implies that the recluse, or to think that she didn’t intend for her poetry to be
speaker has found freedom specifically though its read in the future. She ordered many of her poems into
alternative: poetry. In contrast to prose writing, sequences that she then sewed together into fascicles (or
which is associated with the very constraints the booklets), saving many other poems as unbound sheets.
speaker wants to escape, the poem suggests that Dickinson included “They shut me up in Prose—” in Fascicle
poetry is the art form of freedom and allows the Twenty-One, which dates from late 1862.
speaker limitless possibilities. After Dickinson’s death, various people close to the poet
sought to gain rights to and publish Dickinson’s work. Yet these
The poem, then, can be read as describing Dickinson’s own early editions dramatically changed Dickinson’s poem's so that
experience as a poet, and even more specifically as a female they would align with more traditional norms of rhyme and
poet, within the context of 19th-century New England. At the meter. In the 20th century, Harvard scholars Ralph Franklin
same time, the poem's take on restriction and freedom is likely and Thomas Johnson each published editions of Dickinson’s
one that that many women, artists, and free thinkers can relate poems, providing their own numbering system but ignoring
to today. Dickinson’s original ordering. Only in 2016 did Harvard

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University Press publish a version of Dickinson’s poems that correspondence, critical articles about Dickinson’s work,
preserves Dickinson’s original ordering of the poems and keeps and more at the Dickinson Electronic Archives.
multiple versions intact. (http:/
(http:///archiv
archive.emily
e.emilydickinson.org/inde
dickinson.org/index.html)
x.html)
In a way, then, the story of Dickinson’s work reflects the story • Manuscript VVersion
ersion of “The
“Theyy shut me up in Prose—
Prose—”” —
the speaker tells in this poem. People within the literary View the original manuscript of “They shut me up in
establishment sought to alter Dickinson’s work and make it Prose—” in Dickinson’s handwriting. (
look like more conventional poetry; in a sense, they attempted https:/
https://journe
/journeys.dartmouth.edu/whiteheat/the
ys.dartmouth.edu/whiteheat/they-shut-me-
y-shut-me-
to “shut [the poems] up” in the “Prose” of literary convention. up-in-prose-f445a-j613/ )
Although in her life she published little, Dickinson read widely • Biogr
Biograph
aphyy of Emily Dickinson — Learn about Dickinson’s
and was influenced by a range of writers past and present, life and poetry, and read a range of her poems, through the
including Shak
Shakespeare
espeare, Milton
Milton, Ralph WWaldo
aldo Emerson
Emerson, and her Poetry Foundation. ( https:/
https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/
.poetryfoundation.org/
contemporary Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Browning. Her work also poets/emily-dickinson )
bears influences from religious scripture. Dickinson is
considered a major American poet, who along with Walt LITCHARTS ON OTHER EMILY DICKINSON POEMS
Whitman helped to shape a distinctly American poetry for • A Bird, came down the W Walk
alk
centuries to come. • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
• A narrow F Fellow
ellow in the GrGrass
ass
HISTORICAL CONTEXT • As imperceptibly as grief
Dickinson wrote “They shut me up in Prose—” in 1862, in what • Because I could not stop for Death —
was then the small, religious, conservative New England town • Hope is the thing with feathers
of Amherst, Massachusetts. This historical context is important • I dwell in P Possibility
ossibility –
to the poem, and especially to understanding the speaker’s • I felt a F
Funer
uneral,
al, in m
myy Br
Brain
ain
experiences of personal and social confinement. • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
• I’m Nobody! Who are yyou? ou?
When the speaker refers to being “shut […] up” within “Prose,” • I started Early — T Took
ook mmyy Dog —
or punished as a child so that she would be “still,” she calls to • I taste a liquor nenevver brewed
mind to a range of societal conventions of the time. Within this • Much Madness is divinest Sense -
time period (and of course, in any places into the present), girls • My Life had stood - a LLoaded
oaded Gun
and women were expected to be quiet, still, and well-behaved. • Success is counted sweetest
Women would be expected to marry and have children, not • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
become poets. • There
There's 's a certain Slant of light
Dickinson wrote the poem, then, within a cultural context that • The Soul selects her own Society
was acutely restrictive and limiting, especially for women. • This is mmyy letter to the world
Within such a world, the speaker’s assertion of imaginative • We grow accustomed to the Dark
freedom and autonomy is all the more striking and remarkable. • Wild nights - Wild nights!

MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES HOW T
TO
O CITE
EXTERNAL RESOURCES MLA
• The Emily Dickinson Archiv
Archivee — View original manuscript Little, Margaree. "They shut me up in Prose –." LitCharts. LitCharts
versions of many of Dickinson’s poems and read more LLC, 21 Jan 2021. Web. 4 Mar 2021.
about her work at the Emily Dickinson Archive.
(https:/
(https://www
/www.edickinson.org
.edickinson.org ) CHICAGO MANUAL
Little, Margaree. "They shut me up in Prose –." LitCharts LLC,
• The Emily Dickinson Museum — Learn more about
January 21, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
Dickinson’s life and work at the website of the Emily
https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/emily-dickinson/they-shut-me-
Dickinson Museum, which is located at Dickinson’s former
up-in-prose.
home in Amherst, Massachusetts.
(https:/
(https://www
/www.emily
.emilydickinsonmuseum.org
dickinsonmuseum.org )
• Dickinson Electronic Archiv
Archives
es — Read Dickinson’s

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