Poem of Emily Dickinson????

Question

This is the poem:

I taste a liquor never brewed—
From Tankards scooped in Pearl—
Not all the Vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of Air—am I—
And Debauchee of Dew—
Reeling—thro endless summer days—
From inns of Molten Blue—

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door—
When Butterflies—renounce their "drams"—
I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats—
And Saints—to windows run—
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the—Sun—

So far what i can understand is that she unlike others gets her high or drunkness from nature, unlike other people. It seems like she is almost rubbing on their faces that her way better. The last two stanzas are what are giving me the most trouble, what does the bee and the butterfly represent. A foxglove is a plant that was used for heart attacks but how can that tie into the poem, thank you!!!

Answer 1

Chances are Emily Dickinson was referring to the specific names of places where people gathered to drink, like with Foxglove's door. Considering that the first two verses contained specific names for real places and names of brew (beer or spirits popular at the time) then Foxglove's was not meant to be the name for a plant but the name of a popular tavern.

Bees and Butterflies were probably intended to mean the slang names given to men and women at the time who socialized at such taverns. She was using these references as double meanings ... implying that she only needed natural highs.

The word tippler was a slang word during her time that meant someone who was prone to drink too much too often. She was referring to herself as a 'little tippler' (Emily Dickinson was small in size and frail and often sickly) and repeating that her high was a natural high.