A video for "To make a Prairie It Takes a Clover and One Bee" (Link if video doesn't load https://youtu.be/R6pjiJyguN4)
Poem Analysis
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee. And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few. "Bee on a clover" |
In the poem “To make a Prairie it Takes a Clover and One Bee” Emily Dickinson uses a clover, a bee, and a prairie to symbolically show that in life one is given a few things to help them find happiness yet if one is shorthanded, revery can replace the tools. Dickinson begins her poem by saying “To make a prairie it take one bee and a clover,/One clover and a bee./And revery” (1). The prairie represents a good and happy life and the bee and clover represent the few tools one is given to help create their happy life. Dickinson continues to emphasize that you only get a few tools by restating the line “One clover, and a bee”. She continues on this idea by saying that one also gets revery. Revery represents the idea that one can create a good life by believing and continuing to dream. By using these symbols Dickinson helps to emphasize her theme when she says, “The revery alone will do,/ If bees are few” (4-5). If one doesn’t have enough of one of the tools that bees and clovers represent, dreaming and believing can still help them make their “prairie”. By showing that the most important element in making a prairie is revery Dickinson helps make her theme even more emphatic. Through her use of symbols in this poem Dickinson helps show the reader that one is only given a few tools to make their life a full one and if they don’t have enough of these tools dreaming can replace the missing tool.
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