Nature & the Self
Nature & the Self
The final two individual poems we study take very different approaches to the relationship between place and the self. Dickinson’s “I started Early – Took my Dog” presents nature as a powerful, almost threatening force, while Hannah’s “Postcard from a Travel Snob” uses the voice of a pretentious traveller to satirise attitudes to place. Together, these poems explore how we project our own feelings, fears and prejudices onto the places we visit.
I started Early – Took my Dog — Emily Dickinson
Dickinson (1830–1886) was an American poet who lived a reclusive life in Amherst, Massachusetts. She published fewer than a dozen poems in her lifetime; nearly 1,800 were discovered after her death. “I started Early – Took my Dog” describes a walk to the sea. At first, the speaker observes calmly: “the Mermaids in the Basement / Came out to look at me.” But the sea gradually becomes aggressive, rising around the speaker like a pursuer: “He followed – close behind – / I felt His Silver Heel / Upon my Ankle.”
Dickinson personifies the sea as male (“He”) and the encounter feels increasingly like a pursuit or even an assault. The sea “made as He would eat me up” and rose past “my Apron – and my Belt.” The speaker only escapes when they reach “the Solid Town,” where “The Sea withdrew.” The poem can be read as an allegory for many things — the power of nature over humanity, the threat of male dominance, or the overwhelming force of desire or creativity.
Dickinson personifies the sea as “He” — a male pursuer whose power the speaker cannot control. This gendered personification allows multiple interpretations: the sea as nature’s overwhelming force, as threatening masculinity or as uncontrollable creative inspiration. The poem works on both a literal level (a walk to the beach) and a symbolic level (an encounter with something bigger than the self).
Dickinson’s poems are famous for their dashes, which interrupt the rhythm and create pauses that feel like gasps or hesitations: “I started Early – Took my Dog –.” The poem uses hymn metre (common metre) — alternating lines of eight and six syllables — which gives it a deceptively simple, song-like quality. This simplicity contrasts with the poem’s disturbing content, creating an unsettling effect: a nursery-rhyme rhythm tells a story about being chased by the sea.
Postcard from a Travel Snob — Sophie Hannah
Hannah (born 1971) is a contemporary British poet and novelist. “Postcard from a Travel Snob” is written in the voice of a persona — a pretentious traveller who mocks tourists for visiting “obvious” destinations. The speaker boasts about their own obscure, off-the-beaten-track location and sneers at those who holiday in popular places: the implication is that the speaker’s travel choices make them culturally superior.
The poem is satirical. Hannah does not agree with the speaker — she exposes the travel snob’s arrogance by making their voice so obviously self-important that the reader laughs at them, not with them. The speaker’s condescension (“I do not wish that anyone were here”) reveals more about their own insecurity than about the places they visit. The four regular quatrains and their neat ABAB rhyme give the poem a polished, postcard-like surface that reinforces the idea of performance — the speaker is constructing an image of themselves as a superior traveller.
Hannah uses a persona to create dramatic irony: the travel snob thinks they are demonstrating cultural sophistication, but the reader sees through them. The poem is ultimately about how people use place to construct identity — the snob’s destination choices are about ego, not genuine engagement with the world.
Tone: Dickinson’s poem is unsettling and ambiguous; Hannah’s is comic and satirical. Both poets use place to explore something beyond the literal location — Dickinson uses the sea to examine power and vulnerability; Hannah uses travel destinations to examine snobbery and identity performance.
Voice: Dickinson speaks as herself (or a version of herself), making the encounter personal and intimate. Hannah adopts a persona, creating distance between the poet and the speaker. This distance is essential for the satire to work — the reader must recognise that Hannah is mocking, not endorsing, the speaker.
Form: Dickinson’s hymn metre creates a deceptive simplicity that contrasts with the disturbing content. Hannah’s neat ABAB quatrains create a slick, postcard-like surface that mirrors the speaker’s performance of sophistication. Both poets use form ironically — the form says one thing, the content says another.
Connecting to the Wider Anthology
Dickinson pairs well with Davidson (“In Romney Marsh”) — both present nature as an overwhelming force, but Davidson’s speaker is awed while Dickinson’s is threatened. Dickinson also connects to Nichols (“Hurricane Hits England”), where a natural event triggers a deep personal response. Hannah pairs with Afrika (“Nothing’s Changed”) — both poems are about what places reveal about human attitudes, though one is comic and the other is angry.