logo

18 pages 36 minutes read

Emily Dickinson

Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)

Emily DickinsonFiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1914

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Fame is a fickle food” is written in unpunctuated free verse. It is 10 lines long. Dickinson’s lines are between six and three syllables long: Lines 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 10 have six syllables, Lines 3 and 8 have five syllables, and Lines 4 and 9 have three syllables. This reveals a pattern of two lines with six syllables, one line with five syllables, and one line with three syllables, followed by three lines with six syllables, one line with five syllables, and one line with three syllables, ending with a 10-syllable line. However, the variations in this pattern—the growing number of six-syllable lines before the subsequent lines shrink to five and three syllables—defies most metrical forms. The final line, Line 10, scans as iambic (has a pattern of each unstressed syllable being followed by a stressed syllable); however, her other lines resist any sort of regularity in metrical scansion.

Dickinson also resists formal language, instead utilizing plain style. While there is a slant rhyme, or near-rhyme, in Lines 5 and 6 (set/inspect), other poems by Dickinson more clearly exhibit her particular use of slant rhyme. “Fame is a fickle food” has elements from the elegy form.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
Unlock IconUnlock all 18 pages of this Study Guide

Plus, gain access to 8,450+ more expert-written Study Guides.

Including features:

+ Mobile App
+ Printable PDF
+ Literary AI Tools