I Never Saw a Moor

“I never saw a Moor-” The poem “ I never saw a Moor-” by Emily Dickinson is a speaker professing their religious beliefs through comparison. In the first stanza she says that she has never seen a moor or the sea, but she knows that they exist. The first stanzas states the axiom that just because a person has never seen something does not mean that it doesn’t exist. In the last stanza she states that she has never spoken with God or visited Heaven, but again she knows that they exist. In response to number one on page 821, the speaker of the poem is a religious person that believes in God. From the poem we can tell that she has traditional religious beliefs and sensibilities. In the last two lines of the poem the speaker says, “Yet certain am I of the spot As if the Checks were given-” meaning that even though she has never seen them she knows that it exists as if she had a map with Heaven on it. The speaker uses the first stanza to show that her reasoning is logical, by saying, “ I never saw the Sea” we understand that she has not seen it, but know it exists. Using the logic shown in the first stanza makes her statements in the second stanza seem more realistic. To answer number 24 on page 822, my own experiences influence my reading of this poem because I believe in God. I understand that just because He can’t be seen or heard that he still exists. I can relate to lines five and six, “I never spoke with God Nor visited in Heaven.” Even though the speaker admits to this, her faith does not