Summary
In the second half of the poem, the speaker continues to describe her feelings of overwhelming giddiness. The speaker constructs scenes of animals partaking in natural analogues to drinking and bars. She then says she will outdo them all at this version of drinking. In the end, the speaker introduces religious imagery, implying that the intensity of this feeling is so strong that it has moved her on a spiritual level.
Analysis
The third and fourth stanzas of the poem offer not only a further explication of the speaker's elation, but a narrative of how it develops. Dickinson continues to build on this intoxication metaphor, employing lighthearted images of various animals consuming various approximations of alcohol. The freewheeling, joyful tone and mood continue consistently. Both the third and fourth stanzas end in exclamation points, marking the speaker's more pronounced state of inebriation as well as her mounting joyfulness at all of these visions. These devices further assist the portrayal of the speaker as jovial and loose, thrilled to share these many details with the reader. They also underline the speaker's gradual progression from drunkenness to transcendence.
The third stanza shows scenes of various creatures "drinking." The first of these is a depiction of bees: "When 'Landlords' turn the drunken Bee / Out of the Foxglove's door." The quotation marks around "Landlords" denote the humorous image of a bee being kicked out of a foxglove, as if the bee is a rowdy bar patron. She also remarks on an imagined moment where "When Butterflies – renounce their 'drams,'" doubling up on this nature-based parallelism. This is also a similarly whimsical scene, as it describes a butterfly pushing away a "dram" of liquor. She places these animals in distinctly human settings, then springs off of these moments, declaring that even as these figures cease their drinking, she, the speaker, "shall but drink the more!" She is both marveling at these animals and showing that her appreciation for this feeling outpaces theirs. If the green world is a bar, the speaker is determined to be the final customer. This stanza also subtly shows the dark side of the consumption of actual alcohol. These scenes remain humorous and light because they are so uncanny. it's difficult to imagine a drunken bee or butterfly, but the core of both of these images is grounded in reality. A real bar customer being tossed out of an establishment is a much more serious scene. By introducing these scenes, Dickinson hints at the downsides of actual liquor. She also shows the preferability of her own "natural" intoxication, as it presents none of these drawbacks. In fact, her enthusiasm about "outdrinking" the bees and butterflies shows her love of this feeling. As the reader sees in the next stanza, the speaker's sentiment about this only continues to rise.
The fourth and final stanza introduces religious symbolism into the text. The speaker describes "seraphs" with "snowy hats" and "saints" who "to windows run." The inclusion of these figures represents the final elevation of the speaker's blissful state. She is directly comparing the feeling produced by this liquor to that of religious ecstasy. These ideas are tied together neatly in the poem's closing which shows the saints and seraphs seeing "the little Tippler / Leaning against the – Sun!" The phrase "little tippler" is the speaker referencing herself, both describing her state of natural intoxication and showing how she is seen from the outside. A tippler is a regular drinker of alcoholic beverages. The effect of this reference is twofold: it highlights the final stage of overwhelming wonder and reveals how she has become in tune with this world. By describing herself as "leaning against the sun," the speaker is depicting her oneness with nature, her sense of self completely joined with this space. It is a peaceful pose, as she is "leaning," not standing or sitting, connoting the speaker's degree of leisure in that moment. This final stanza is the place where it becomes most apparent that Dickinson finds this state of inebriation superior to the one supplied by real alcohol. She is showing this alternative liquor's potential, at its peak, to provide a kind of spiritual revelation. She has moved from being enthralled by the beautiful things around her to being in harmony with them. This change represents the logical end of the speaker's journey. She has experienced an increasing state of euphoric intoxication to finally ascend to this spiritual connection with nature. Unlike man-made alcohol, this "liquor never brewed" does not present a similarly challenging set of adverse side effects. The speaker only finds positive experiences in this version of liquor.
Ultimately, the poem is about nature's ability to elevate and overwhelm the individuals who experience it. Dickinson uses the language around alcohol and drinking to capture this feeling, but also reveals the way in which nature is far superior in its ability to give back to the viewer. She chooses liquor as the poem's central metaphor because it allows her to capture the essence of this feeling, but also to move beyond it. The speaker experiences wonder, joy, and, finally, peace. The poem successfully creates the idea of an entirely other sort of drink, one made from the marvels of the natural world, that only elevates its consumer.
