There is Another Sky by Emily Dickinson
“There is Another Sky” is a sonnet that depicts the beauty of nature itself in her described “Garden of Eden” as many call it. However, the poem was written in conjunction with a letter the writer sent to her brother pleading him to come back home. She would give anything for him to come back.
There is another sky
BY EMILY DICKINSON
There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields –
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!
Analysis of Dickinson’s “There is Another Sky”
In the poem, “There is Another Sky”, Emily Dickinson tries to convince Austin, who is her brother, to come back from Boston to Amherst. Contextually progressing, she tells her brother stories of “home”. The first line of the poem itself “There is another sky” is a metaphor towards expressing “There is another place for you”.
As per the context, Amherst is just another geographical location yet in her poem, it begets a celestial depiction comparable with the “Garden of Eden” where sunshine never fades and leaves are always green.
She wanted to portray the idea of home as something special. No matter what changes around home, home will always be home. Emily, being the loving sister, wanted her brother to know that in Boston there might be darkness and the flowers may wither, but “here” there is always sunshine and the flowers are forever blooming in her garden. “Here”, as per context, means Amherst or their home, however, it could also mean her being the heart of their home.
The writer expresses the unorthodox amount of love she has towards her brother in this poem, and because she loved him, she wanted him to be happy and this garden of hers serves that very purpose. Austin might be living very jolly but there are bound to be sad moments. Emily loves him so much that she wants even those sad moments to completely disappear. Living under a light that never fades is just her way of expressing her undying love for him.
The poem ends with “Into my garden come!” sending out an invitation to her brother and reminding that their home will always be his home. However, the nature of the poem allows it to be interpreted in another manner where Emily is describing herself to her brother. But, regardless of interpretation, it is still an invitation sent to her brother, Austin, to come back home.
