Dickenson spoke several times about hunger in her poems. When she did this she repeatedly spoke about having only a crumb of bread to eat. Was there some kind of significance to this that made her keep referring back to the crumb of bread?

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2000

Answers

I don't think that the saing only a crumb of bread had any significance. I think that the main reason that she used that phrase was to give you an idea just how hungery the person in the poem is. The other reason she might have used that saying was it was a common saying back then. I say thi because my Grandma who is 82 years old uses that saying to describe how bad the thirties were. When she uses the saying she dosen't mean it literally, so I don't think Dickenson used it lit

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2000