Emily Dickinson: Fame is a Fickle Food

“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”

The poem Fame is a fickle food by Emily Dickinson brings up a few good points about fame. In this, Dickinson refers to fame as a fickle food, which is a constantly changing food. She talks about how fame is constantly shifting and unpredictable. In this, I think that the author explains fame as a tangible object in order to allow readers to understand her message more clearly. 

At the end, Emily Dickinson states, “Men eat of it and die.” I thought that this line was very aggressive, at least the way that I read it. In addition, I think that by this line, she meant that fame can be very harmful, and can eventually lead people down the wrong path or quite literally to death. I am not entirely sure if this is what she meant when she was writing this poem, but I interpreted it as the dark path that many people go down after becoming famous. Having people judging every move you make and commenting their own opinions on you can put you in a dark place that could lead to bad decisions. That is why Dickinson uses fickle food to relate fame to because one moment fame could seem like the best thing to happen to you and the next moment it could completely change.