Symbol Analysis
Dickinson does a fair amount of name dropping for such a short poem. Interestingly, all the names dropped are specific kinds of alcohol. You'd think that, if nature was the only thing the narrator was getting drunk on, she'd know a lot fewer specifics about alcohol. The idea here isn't to show off her knowledge of exotic wines, but to give the reader a solid comparison so her metaphors and symbols pack a proper punch. Presumably, these specific alcohols were well-known in her era and served as symbols of something that could get you really drunk, or perhaps something really extravagant. It's like when Lorde tosses around all those name brands like Grey Goose and Cristal in "Royals". Not only do we understand that she's talking about something pricey, but we also understand the culture of extravagance and indulgence where these liquors are frequently found. Through these name brands, her readers understood that she's saying that her drunkenness off nature is even better than the best liquors available.
- Line 3: The wines produced in the Rhine Valley where these "Frankfort Berries" come from are not of any special note in modern times. However, it's entirely possible that wines popular with the upper classes in Dickinson's time came from this area. In fact, there is a state-run winery in Frankfurt, Germany that opened its doors about sixty years before this poem was written. Some political events leading up to the annexation of Frankfurt by Prussia in 1866 were probably newsworthy and may have inspired an interest in wines imported from the winery. Importing anything in the mid-nineteenth century was pricey, so only the wealthy would be able to afford a wine from a politically-active area in Germany. This is all speculation, of course, but it makes us feel like Sherlock Holmes sniffing out the meanings of these suspiciously specific references. You know, there are worst things to feel like than Sherlock Holmes.
- Line 16: Again, Manzanilla is a type of fino sherry wine, this time from Spain. We can connect the dots and make another case for this being a popular kind of liquor at the time Dickinson wrote it. First, we can find evidence that cocktails using sherry were popular around the time that Dickinson was writing. One particularly telling bit of evidence, however, can be found in another writer's work. Amontillado is another type of sherry wine, and Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Cask of Amontillado" was first published only fourteen years before Dickinson wrote this poem. It stands to reason that the liquor was popular if someone as prominent as Poe used it in a title (never mind that the liquor was used as the bait that leads poor Fortunato to his rather gruesome death). Again, Dickinson drops the name of a popular kind of liquor so the reader can get a solid grasp on the meaning of her symbol.