i started early - took my dog

I Started Early - Took my Dog



The poem “I started Early - Took my Dog” has a constant theme of the ever changing emotions that a woman can have toward a man. This poem is not difficult to analyze at the literal level, but when examined more closely many other level of interpretations become apparent. Literally, a women takes her dog with her and visits the sea. Once there she becomes frightened of the tide and runs for the safety of a town. There are a number of metaphors throughout the poem that literally describe the sea and the tide. One such metaphor, “I felt his silver heel upon my ankle” describes the surf catching up with her as she walks away from the sea. In the last stanza the women appears to become frightened by the water, to the point where she even feel that the sea “would eat [her] up”.
This poem also has much more to it than its literal meaning. The sea can be a metaphor for a number of things: the sexuality of an advancing man, and...