Summer's Armies

Emily Dickinson's Summer's Armies

Emily Dickinson's "Summer's Armies" presents a remarkable study in contrasts: the gentle arrival of summer depicted through the imagery of military pageantry. Through this extended metaphor, Dickinson transforms the quotidian emergence of seasonal life into a grand spectacle worthy of contemplation. The poem exhibits her characteristic precision, compression, and startling imagery, while simultaneously revealing her deep attentiveness to the natural world. Published posthumously like the vast majority of her works, "Summer's Armies" exemplifies Dickinson's skill in rendering the ordinary extraordinary through unconventional perspectives and linguistic innovation.

This analysis explores how Dickinson employs militaristic imagery to elevate summer's arrival into a majestic procession, examining the poem's technical elements, thematic concerns, and placement within both Dickinson's body of work and the broader American literary tradition. Through close reading and contextual examination, we can appreciate how this seemingly simple nature poem contains profound observations about perception, transformation, and the complex relationship between humans and the natural world.

Historical and Biographical Context

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) composed most of her poetry in relative isolation in Amherst, Massachusetts, during the mid-nineteenth century—a period of tremendous upheaval in American society. Writing during and after the Civil War, Dickinson would have been acutely aware of military language and imagery, though she rarely addressed political events directly in her work. Instead, this martial vocabulary was repurposed to describe natural phenomena, creating a distinctive fusion of domestic observation and broader cultural awareness.

Dickinson's reclusive lifestyle has often overshadowed critical appreciation of her profound engagement with the world around her. Though increasingly withdrawn from society as she aged, Dickinson maintained an acute awareness of her surroundings, particularly the natural world visible from her home and garden. Her botanical knowledge was considerable; she cultivated a garden and maintained a herbarium in her youth. This expertise manifests in "Summer's Armies" through precise observations of seasonal transitions and specific flora like the orchis (a type of orchid).

The poem likely dates from Dickinson's most productive period in the early 1860s, when she composed hundreds of poems annually. This era coincided with the American Civil War (1861-1865), which may partially explain the military metaphors suffusing the text. However, rather than addressing the conflict directly, Dickinson transforms martial imagery into a celebration of life and renewal, creating a complex counterpoint to the devastating human conflict occurring beyond her immediate environment.

Formal Analysis

Structure and Form

"Summer's Armies" exemplifies Dickinson's characteristic adaptation of hymn meter, specifically common meter (alternating lines of eight and six syllables). However, she modifies this traditional form by organizing the poem into six tercets (three-line stanzas) rather than the more common quatrains of hymnal verse. This structural choice creates a rolling, processional quality that reinforces the poem's thematic movement.

The rhyme scheme follows an AAB pattern in each tercet (with some slant rhymes typical of Dickinson's work), creating musical unity while allowing for progression. This technical consistency provides a framework within which Dickinson presents her kaleidoscopic visions of summer's arrival. The tercet form also allows for a sense of forward momentum—each stanza introducing a new element of summer's "army" before culminating in the final, questioning stanza.

Dickinson's characteristic punctuation—particularly her liberal use of dashes and exclamation points—creates pauses and emphases that guide the reader through the poem's emotional landscape. The exclamations ("Some rainbow coming from the fair!") convey wonder and excitement, while the final questions open the poem toward contemplation rather than conclusion.

Language and Sound

The poem's diction combines elevated, almost archaic language ("Behold!," "Baronial bees") with more colloquial expressions ("thick to-day"), creating a distinctive fusion of the grand and the everyday. This linguistic range reflects Dickinson's ability to elevate ordinary observations to the realm of philosophical inquiry while maintaining a connection to lived experience.

Alliteration appears throughout the poem, connecting images across lines and stanzas: "peacock's purple," "Feather by feather," "bright detachment." These sonic patterns create cohesion and emphasize key images through sound. The prevalence of bilabial consonants (b, p) and liquid consonants (l, r) creates a sonic texture that alternates between explosive energy and flowing movement, mirroring the varied activities of summer's arrival.

The poem also employs internal rhyme and assonance to create musicality beyond the end rhymes: "Lethargic pools resume the whir" contains subtle vowel echoes that create harmony within the line. This attention to sound patterns demonstrates Dickinson's careful craftsmanship and her background in musical training, which informed her poetic compositions.

Imagery and Symbolism

Military Metaphors

The central conceit of "Summer's Armies" transforms summer's natural manifestations into military formations and maneuvers. Dickinson presents:

• "Baronial bees march, one by one, / In murmuring platoon!"
• "The regiment of wood and hill / In bright detachment stand"
• "multitudes" that suggest an advancing force

This extended metaphor elevates the seasonal transition to epic proportions, rendering the familiar unfamiliar through defamiliarization. By casting butterflies, bees, and robins as soldiers, Dickinson invites readers to reconsider both the organizational precision of nature and the purpose of military formations. The military imagery suggests both order and purpose—nature's creatures follow ancient patterns with discipline and determination.

Importantly, these armies are "Without commander, countless, still," suggesting an inherent organization that requires no external authority. This observation aligns with Transcendentalist notions of nature's self-governing principles and may offer an implicit contrast to human military endeavors with their rigid hierarchies.

Exotic and Fantastical References

Dickinson infuses her New England landscape with exotic references that expand the poem's imaginative scope:

• "world Cashmere" (referring to Kashmir, known for fine textiles)
• "peacock's purple train"
• "turbaned seas"
• "Circassian land" (referring to a region in the Caucasus known for its beauty)

These allusions to distant lands create a tension between the locally observed and the imaginatively conjured. The familiar New England spring is transformed through these references into something exotic and mysterious. This technique demonstrates Dickinson's ability to perceive the extraordinary within the ordinary, a characteristic quality of her poetic vision.

The peacock image deserves particular attention, as it introduces both beauty and dissolution: "Feather by feather, on the plain / Fritters itself away!" This suggests the ephemeral nature of beauty, perhaps reflecting on summer's inevitable passage even as it arrives. The rainbow similarly suggests both splendor and impermanence, establishing a pattern of transient beauty that runs throughout the poem.

The Sun as Lover

The personification of "Don the Sun" as the "old lover" of the orchis (orchid) introduces a romantic narrative within the predominantly martial framework. This anthropomorphic treatment of natural elements creates a parallel between human relationships and ecological interactions. The orchid preparing itself ("binds her feather on") for the sun's return suggests both preparedness and anticipation, qualities shared with the poem's military imagery but redirected toward reunion rather than conflict.

This romantic interlude within the martial progression complicates the poem's overall metaphorical framework, suggesting that nature's processes encompass multiple forms of relationship simultaneously. The sun functions as both commander (implicitly leading the "armies" of summer) and lover, creating a rich associative network that resists simplistic interpretation.

Thematic Analysis

Cycles of Renewal

A central theme of "Summer's Armies" is the cyclical nature of seasonal return. References to "last year's sundered tune" being resumed and the sun "Revisiting the bog" emphasize continuity and return rather than novel emergence. Summer's arrival is presented not as creation ex nihilo but as resurrection—a reactivation of dormant patterns and relationships.

This cyclical view of nature aligns with Dickinson's broader interest in immortality and resurrection. Though frequently associated with her more explicitly religious poems, this concern with cycles of death and rebirth appears in "Summer's Armies" through natural rather than supernatural processes. The transformation of yesterday's "flakes of snow" into today's robins "thick" upon the branches suggests not merely succession but transmutation—one form of beauty yielding to another through seasonal progression.

Perception and Imagination

The poem opens with expressions of subjective vision: "I confidently see!" This declaration of perceptual certainty is immediately complicated by alternative possibilities ("Some rainbow" or "else a peacock's purple train"), suggesting that the speaker's confidence extends to the act of seeing rather than the precise identification of what is seen.

This theme of perception continues throughout the poem, as natural phenomena are transfigured through the speaker's imaginative vision. The tension between observation and imagination suggests that understanding nature requires both empirical attention and creative interpretation. Dickinson thus positions herself within the American Romantic tradition that valued both empiricism and imagination as complementary rather than competing approaches to understanding.

The poem's concluding questions—"Behold! Whose multitudes are these? / The children of whose turbaned seas, / Or what Circassian land?"—further emphasize the interpretive aspect of perception. These questions acknowledge the limits of understanding even while celebrating the act of beholding. By ending with questions rather than assertions, Dickinson invites readers to participate in the ongoing process of perceiving and interpreting the natural world.

Order and Mystery

Throughout "Summer's Armies," Dickinson balances images of natural order with suggestions of mystery and wonder. The military metaphor implies organization and purpose, yet the exotic references and questioning conclusion emphasize nature's ultimate inscrutability.

This tension between order and mystery reflects broader philosophical currents in nineteenth-century American thought, particularly the tension between scientific rationalism and Romantic idealism. Dickinson's poem suggests that nature exhibits both qualities simultaneously—its processes are orderly yet mysterious, familiar yet strange. The bees march "In murmuring platoon," displaying organization while maintaining their essential wildness.

By portraying natural processes through military imagery while acknowledging their fundamental unknowability, Dickinson creates a nuanced vision that resists reductive categorization. Nature is neither fully mechanical nor wholly mystical, but exists in the productive tension between these interpretive frameworks.

Placement in Dickinson's Canon

"Summer's Armies" exemplifies several recurrent features of Dickinson's nature poetry while demonstrating her versatility within this thematic category. Like many of her poems, it transforms careful observation into philosophical reflection through unexpected metaphors and linguistic compression.

Dickinson frequently wrote about seasonal transitions, particularly spring's emergence, as in "A Light exists in Spring" (F962) and "The Simple News that Nature told" (F1130). However, "Summer's Armies" distinguishes itself through its sustained military metaphor and exotic allusions, demonstrating Dickinson's ability to approach familiar subjects from fresh perspectives.

The poem's militaristic framework connects it to Dickinson's broader fascination with power dynamics and authority, themes that appear in poems like "My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun" (F764) and "They dropped like Flakes" (F545). However, while these poems often explore power's destructive potential, "Summer's Armies" presents natural force as generative and life-affirming, creating an interesting counterpoint within her body of work.

The exotic references in "Summer's Armies" also connect it to Dickinson's engagement with geography and cultural difference, evident in poems like "Volcanoes be in Sicily" (F1691) and "It makes no difference abroad" (F686). Despite her physical confinement, Dickinson's imaginative geography was expansive, incorporating global references that expanded her poetic worlds beyond New England's boundaries.

Literary and Philosophical Connections

Transcendentalism

Though not typically classified as a Transcendentalist, Dickinson engaged with many of the movement's central concerns, particularly its attention to nature as a source of spiritual insight. "Summer's Armies" reflects the Transcendentalist interest in natural processes as manifestations of divine ordering principles. The poem's suggestion that nature's armies operate "Without commander" yet maintain perfect formation echoes Emerson's conception of the "Over-Soul" that organizes existence without direct intervention.

However, Dickinson's vision differs from orthodox Transcendentalism in its emphasis on nature's mystery rather than its transparency. While Emerson often suggested that nature could be "read" by the prepared mind, Dickinson's concluding questions acknowledge limits to human understanding. This epistemological humility distinguishes her approach from the more confident assertions of Transcendentalist philosophy.

British Romanticism

Dickinson was well-versed in British Romantic poetry, particularly the works of Wordsworth, Keats, and the Brownings. "Summer's Armies" shares the Romantic fascination with nature's transformative potential and its ability to inspire wonder. The poem's exotic imagery and emotional response to natural beauty connect it to the Romantic tradition's emphasis on imagination and feeling.

The peacock image, with its implications of beauty and dissolution, particularly recalls Keats's concern with the relationship between beauty and impermanence in poems like "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "To Autumn." Dickinson's compressed expression of this theme—"Fritters itself away!"—achieves through brevity what Keats developed through extended meditation.

Scientific Discourse

Dickinson wrote during a period of rapid scientific advancement, particularly in natural history and biology. Her precise observations in "Summer's Armies" reflect the period's growing emphasis on careful empirical study of natural phenomena. References to specific flora like the orchis demonstrate her botanical knowledge, while her attention to patterns of animal behavior suggests familiarity with naturalist writings of her era.

However, Dickinson's approach differs from pure scientific description through its metaphorical transformation of observed phenomena. By casting natural processes in military terms, she imposes a human interpretive framework that acknowledges the subjective element in all observation. This approach anticipates later phenomenological understandings of the observer's role in constituting what is observed.

Conclusion

"Summer's Armies" exemplifies Emily Dickinson's distinctive poetic vision through its transformation of careful natural observation into profound philosophical reflection. By reimagining summer's arrival as a military campaign, Dickinson elevates everyday natural processes into a grand spectacle worthy of wonder and contemplation. The poem's formal precision, vivid imagery, and conceptual complexity demonstrate Dickinson's mastery of the lyric form and her ability to perceive the extraordinary within the ordinary.

The poem's enduring power derives from this fusion of the immediately observed with the imaginatively conceived. Dickinson presents summer not merely as a season but as an event—a coordinated emergence of life forces that transform the landscape through their collective action. By rendering this familiar transition through unfamiliar metaphors, she invites readers to reconsider their own relationship to natural cycles and processes.

Moreover, "Summer's Armies" reflects broader intellectual currents of nineteenth-century American thought, particularly the tension between empirical observation and imaginative interpretation that characterized both scientific inquiry and literary production of the period. Dickinson's poem suggests that understanding nature requires both careful attention to specific details and a willingness to perceive larger patterns and meanings.

The poem's concluding questions remind us that even the most careful observation and imaginative interpretation leave aspects of nature's processes mysterious. This epistemological humility, combined with genuine wonder at natural beauty and order, creates a balanced perspective that acknowledges both human perceptual capacities and their limitations. Through this nuanced approach, "Summer's Armies" continues to offer contemporary readers a model for engaging with the natural world—attentive, imaginative, and ultimately reverent toward what cannot be fully comprehended.