There is no Frigate like a Book

“There is no Frigate like a Book” explores questions of history and self-knowledge central to the human experience. The speaker places poetry at the center of this exploration and does so by comparing the power of literature with the power of various war machines. The extended nature of these metaphors suggests a deep connection between the two things being compared.

The speaker communicates literature’s ability to take its readers “[l]ands away” by imagining literature as a “[f]rigate,” a “[c]ourser” and a “[c]hariot.” In each of these vehicles, the speaker imagines the reader as a passenger. Since each of these vehicles are designed for war zones or battlefields (See: Symbols & Motifs), they rarely carry civilian passengers. This suggests that the speaker places the reader in a combative position on a larger battlefield.

The stakes of reading literature are not the same as waging war, but both require one to survey or “[t]raverse” new territory. The word “traverse,” in this sense, means to cross and to study a landscape—skills essential to both understanding the topography of a battlefield and to orienting oneself in a new work of literature. By making these comparisons, Dickinson’s speaker suggests the study of literature can be arduous, even if it is not as expensive or physically taxing as traversing a battlefield.