Lyric Poem · Happiness
I taste a liquor never brewed
by Emily Dickinson · 1890
1I TASTE a liquor never brewed,
2From tankards scooped in pearl;
3Not all the vats upon the Rhine
4Yield such an alcohol!
5Inebriate of air am I,
6And debauchee of dew,
7Reeling, through endless summer days,
8From inns of molten blue.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“I taste a liquor never brewed” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/i-taste-a-liquor-never-brewed
Quick facts
- Poem
- I taste a liquor never brewed
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Published
- 1890
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Happiness, Nature, Funny
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- WikisourceI taste a liquor never brewed by emily-dickinson, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1890
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 c824d540d3ff1f91…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.