Emily Dickinson's Fame Is A Fickle Food '

Emily Dickinson’s perspective of fame, as seen in “Fame is a fickle food” reveals her decision of not publishing any of her poems. Emily Dickinson is regarded as one of the greatest American poets, known for her unique style of writing that ignored the poetic conventions of her time. Dickinson’s poems were never published when she was alive; instead she gained posthumous recognition and fame for them. The poems she attempted to publish were heavily altered by editors to make them conform to the poetic norms of the time, deterring her from publishing more. Dickinson’s “Fame is a fickle food” explores the idea of fame being fleeting and transitory, which reveals the truth behind her decision of writing without neither publishing nor seeking recognition for any of her writings.

The poem presents two stanzas, each one of them following the rhythmic iambic trimeter until it is altered in the middle with iambic tetrameter, which allows the reader to feel the movement of ever-changing fame, like Dickinson describes it is “Upon a shifting plate” (2) as it passes along the table from guest to guest, Dickinson considers fame being an ephemeral dish that is hard to catch and can only be enjoyed once. The rhyme scheme in the first stanza, as in most of Dickinson’s poems, is a slant rhyme. In contrast, the second stanza does not have a clear rhyme scheme. This lack of rhyme scheme correlates to the meaning behind the stanza, as it represents where fame falls apart, leaving behind only “crumbs the crows inspect” (6). The form and meter of the poem mirror the connotation invoked by Dickinson throughout both stanzas of fame being a transitive enjoyment, unworthy of her writings and time, further disclosing her decision of not making her poetry available to the