Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)

Dickinson’s untitled poem, referred to by its first line, is a short free-verse poem. “Fame is a fickle food” could be considered elegiac, or a poem that uses elements from the elegy form. In the most direct and well-edited sources (including the manuscript in Dickinson’s own handwriting), there is no end punctuation. However, it being signed and separate from other poems on the same page indicates that it is a complete poem, rather than a fragment; the lack of punctuation is a deliberate choice in Dickinson’s composition.

Dickinson begins with the metaphor, or comparison, between fame and food, which is the controlling image of the poem. The adjective “fickle” (Line 1) indicates that the food of fame is not always accessible or consistent. The first line also includes the alliteration of three words that begin with “f”; this makes the fickleness a key part of the comparison, putting the adjective on equal footing with the nouns. The line break after “food” (Line 1) sections off a complete sentence.

However, the second line turns the simple first-line sentence into a more complex one. Without the second line, the first line’s sentence is merely a definition with a subject, verb, modifying adjective, and object.