Can someone interpret this poem for me?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob N
  • Start date Start date
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Rob N

Guest
Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.

Whose crumbs the crows inspect
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the
Farmer's Corn—
Men eat of it and die.

-Emily Dickinson
 
Fame is something that comes and goes. It is something that keeps you temporarily happy or "nourished" but it's on a shifting plate, meaning that it is hard to hold on to. The guest part might be referring to the idea of fifteen minutes of fame- fame comes and goes to some, but it gets more sturdy the second time it is set. Whatever the famous leave behind gets nitpicked by the "crows" but they move on to something else... to the farmer's corn, which kills men and is therefore much worse than just the "fickle food" of fame but ironically this is what the crows goes to eat.
 
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