I taste a liquor never brewed


I taste a liquor never brewed is Emily Dickinson's exuberant celebration of intoxication with nature, in which the speaker reels drunk on air and dew through endless summer days. "Inebriate of air — am I — / And Debauchee of Dew —"
Author Emily Dickinson
Credit for portrait of Emily Dickinson: Todd-Bingham picture collection, 1837-1966 (inclusive). Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University.
I taste a liquor never brewed —
From Tankards scooped in Pearl —
Not all the Frankfort Berries
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of air — am I —
And Debauchee of Dew —
Reeling — thro' endless summer days —
From inns of molten Blue —

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door —
When Butterflies — renounce their "drams" —
I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats —
And Saints — to windows run —
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the — Sun!