"I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed": Imagery

Nature joining the speaker in the mystical state of mind.

     In the brief poem, I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed, Emily Dickinson crafts a work making a comparison between intoxication and a mystical state of mind.  This piece of literature, though diminutive in length, is jammed packed with imagery, furthering the overall meaning of the work.  Firstly, Dickinson begins her work by saying that the speaker tastes "a liquor never brewed" (Dickinson).  This statement, right at the start, implies that the narrator is not, in fact, under alcoholic inebriation.  But, the line does suggest that the speaker is under the same affects.  The speaker seems to have been "inebriate of air..." (Dickinson).  Moreover, this narrator is in this state of mind because of the surrounding nature.  Dickinson throws in imagery of "drunken bees... (and) butterflies..." being the drinking buddies of this speaker (Dickinson).  Overall, I predict Emily Dickinson is recognizing the approval of the heavens when one is overjoyed with the beauty of nature.