Emily Dickinson Publication Is The Auction Essay

In Emily Dickinson’s “Publication—is the Auction,” the speaker expresses his or her complicated negative feelings toward publishing. Through an array of literary devices (such as the opening metaphor), stylistic choices (such as the use of dashes and capitalization), and mixed diction (ranging form religious to simply aesthetic) the speaker argues that publication strains a writer’s integrity and is essentially selling out.

In the first stanza, the speaker states his or her clear disdain for publishing one’s work by referring to publication as “foul” and by use of metaphor stating that “Publication—is the Auction/ Of the Mind of Man.” Dickinson then strategically uses enjambment between the last sentence of the first stanza (“For so foul a thing”) and the first sentence of the second stanza (“Possibly—but We—would rather”) to pose this immediate conflicting idea that although poverty may be a justifying reason for a writer to resort to publishing, it is still a questionable decision after all. The first stanza is also the only one that does not end with a dash. This in conjunction with the enjambment allows the reader to continue on smoothly from one stanza to the next while keeping the idea from the previous stanza in mind.

The dashes throughout the piece can be read as a stream of consciousness representing the spottiness that comes along with thinking—the inherent pauses and split seconds we take to gather our thoughts. It is the verbal “uh” or “like” moment of poetry. When reading aloud the dashes also give the poem this somewhat questionable sound, almost as if the speaker is a slightly uncertain about his or her argument. Typically, but not always, when a person is certain of him or herself, they pause less while speakin...

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...ion can be spotted is in the second stanza where the “White Creator” is mentioned at the end of line 3. The speaker is saying that instead of resorting to publication in order to survive poverty one would rather go straight from his or her “Garret” to God or the “White Creator.” So, instead of selling out, “We” would rather die and go to God and heaven if it meant saving our work from publication and, in turn, saving our integrity.

The speaker in “Publication—is the Auction” successfully portrays his or her anger toward publishing and expresses that reducing a poet’s words and thoughts to a commercial value is irreverent. In four stanzas, the speaker argues that publication puts a significant strain on a writer by pressuring him or her to conform in order to turn a profit. This is an act not even justifiable by poverty and publication is ultimately selling out.