"There is no frigate like a book"

The poem "There is no frigate like a book" by Emily Dickinson uses two main literary devices that add to its effect and help to accomplish its purpose. That purpose is to honor or acknowledge the power that a book has and the adventures on which it can take the reader. The important literary devices that Emily Dickinson makes use of in this poem are denotation and connotation and figurative language. In the first few line she uses both of these tools. It says, "There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away." This is a simile because she is comparing two unlike things, a book and a frigate using the word like. Dickinson could have used many different words instead of frigate that mean some type of boat or ship. For example, ship, yacht, canoe, and raft all could have been used by Dickinson. But, she picked frigate because the connotation of the word is perfect to describe the nature of a book. A frigate literally means a naval vessel or ship. That implies that it is something adventurous, just like a book is. Also, a frigate can pretty much go anywhere and with one order from the admiral it could be headed to the other side of the world. This is just like how a book can take the reader anywhere in the universe with the flip of a page. Frigates also serve a very specific purpose, to protect the country. Many books have a specific purpose to them as well. The comparisons or relationships between a frigate and a book are endless which is exactly why Dickinson chooses that word. Later in the poem Dickinson uses another comparison, a metaphor, to describe a book. It reads, "How frugal is the chariot that bears the human soul!" The main focus of these two lines is the word chariot. Dickinson could have stuck with her comparison between a book and a frigate, but instead she changes it this time. This is so she can cover land as well as sea. Books can take the reader anywhere and between the chariot and the frigate there is really no place that is not covered. The chariot also implies something adventurous and majestic and also for the most part has a specific purpose, just like a book does. Emily Dickinson uses figurative language to compare a book to things that at first glance seem completely unrelated. But, after thinking about the connotations of her words such as frigate and chariot, the reader is able to truly understand her thoughts and experience the adventures that can be found in a book.