Dickinson has divided the poem into five stanzas, where each one is four lines long and has a rhyme scheme where the second and fourth lines rhyme. Most lines have the same number of syllables ...

There will be clues to the tone not just in the language but in the punctuation and structure of the lines and stanzas, so try a few different ways to read the poem if you aren’t sure.

The stanzas recount the Battle of Baltimore ... This is the most important line of the poem, and a climactic line in the song. Leepson: This is self-evident. It’s the crux of the whole song.

Published on this day in 1845, the work used alliteration, internal rhyme and repetition to draw in readers, lending it a dark and melancholic tone ...