"I never saw a Moor--"

Analysis by: Miss Bryant

Speaker
This speaker is someone who is not familiar with every aspect of life but has a strong sense of belief.

Rhyme Scheme
Moor--a
Sea--b
looks--c
be--b

God--d
Heaven--e
spot--f
given--e

Important Imagery
The image of the sea is important in this poem. It suggests the inconsistancy of human existance and how the lack of physical evidence is a natural human state. The sea, like man, is unpredictable but we know it's there whether we've seen it or not.

Analysis
The speaker in this poem begins by explaining the things she has never seen, yet she knows exist like the "Moor" and the "Sea." She then goes to say that despite the fact that she's never seen them, she knows they exist and what they look like and what they are. Dickinson then makes her point in the second stanza. While she has "never spoke with God/nor visited in Heaven" she knows, because of the speaker's strong faith, that God and Heaven are as real as the sea. This is a poem about faith and religion and the idea that even if you can not see something it does not mean you can not believe it or it does not exist. You can still "know" that things you can not provide proof for are real.