i had been hungry all the years

Links to belonging

1. Belonging to social class

o The persona initially feels disconnected to her social class and desires to belong to a more wealthy class. The metaphor of the window shows how social barriers often prevent this transition. Somehow, the persona overcomes these barriers and experiences the ‘curious wine’, only to find that instead of providing the belonging the persona sought, the new social class makes her feel isolated. o The ‘ample bread’ is positively harmful because the persona realises that she no longer feels the connection to nature and to the simple life that she once lived. The metaphor of the berry being ‘transplanted’ to the road conveys the sense of alienation and disconnection the persona feels in this world.

2. Belonging to self

o The persona realises that desire and ‘hunger’ for more can actually hinder belonging. At first, the persona believes that entering another social class will be satisfying. Ironically, far from satisfying the persona, the experience leads to an understanding that seeking belonging in externalities can actually lead to alienation. o From my perspective, the poem shows the way that true belonging comes from personal integrity and strength of character. Incidentally, these characteristics are likely to lead to material success anyway. The key is that in this approach material wealth is a pleasant side-effect, rather than an end in itself.

Emily Dickinson expresses her yearning for more fulfilment through a stronger connection with society, which is not attained due to Dickinson’s reclusive nature. She sustains this through the extended metaphor of food which symbolises the joys of life and hunger to emphasise her longing to belong. In the opening line, she clearly states “I had been hungry all the years”, and further underlines her sense of loneliness that she felt as an outsider, “I looked in windows for the wealth I could not hope for mine”. She uses sensory words such as “trembling”, “touched” and transferred epithet; the wine as “curious”, to show her unfamiliarity with human experiences. Dickinson contrasts this with her stronger connection with the natural world through the metaphor, “nature’s dining room”. Dickinson further extends this to juxtapose the abundance of life’s pleasures available to her, with the “crumb” that she has become so accustomed to. Dickinson uses a natural simile to depict her lack of belonging, comparing herself to “berry of a mountain bush transplanted to the road”. Her underlying philosophy is that one may strive to belong to a certain way of life, however when finally given the opportunity, one may turn away from those connections due to their former beliefs and convictions. Her metaphorical revelation “I found that hunger was a way of persons outside windows the entering takes away”, concludes that our experiences may make it difficult to make new connections, regardless of our desire to belong. Thus, Emily Dickinson suggests that our experiences and perceptions shape our ability to share connections.
I had been hungry all the years

The concept of belonging in this poem can be seen through Dickinson's metaphoric expression of "hungry" as her desire for people to accept her art (poetry) and herself as it is.
With the poem describing and contrasting her detailed emotions of being metaphorically very hungry outside the window ie) desperately desiring for the acceptance of herself and her poetry, and also having the food infront of her inside the room of the window ie) finally belonging through people's acceptance of her art, reveals her opinion that once she belongs, her great passion and desire for her poetry would disappear - just like the emotion of having "plenty of food" thus being not hungry.

This poem explores the concept belonging and being accepted through her poetry, and also the idea that as she perceives her poetry is not accepted in her current society, this hunger and desire for acceptance is the motivation for her to write her art. This idea can be seen in the contrast of the lines in the poem.
"I looked in windows for the wealth I could not hope for mine" uses the personal pronoun "I" for the beginning of each line to convey the desperation the persona feels to be inside the room with the wealth of food. However this hunger is contrasted with the line "As berry of a mountain bush Transplanted to the road" which uses emjambment to give a sense of oddness and how much the persona feels out of place once she is with the wealth of the food.