The Full Text of “I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—”
1I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—
2But You have enough—of those—
3I could bring You Odors from St. Domingo—
4Colors—from Vera Cruz—
5Berries of Bahamas—have I—
6But this little Blaze
7Flickering to itself—in the Meadow—
8Suits Me—more than those—
9Never a Fellow matched this Topaz—
10And his Emerald Swing—
11Dower itself—for Bobadilo—
12Better—Could I bring?
The Full Text of “I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—”
1I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—
2But You have enough—of those—
3I could bring You Odors from St. Domingo—
4Colors—from Vera Cruz—
5Berries of Bahamas—have I—
6But this little Blaze
7Flickering to itself—in the Meadow—
8Suits Me—more than those—
9Never a Fellow matched this Topaz—
10And his Emerald Swing—
11Dower itself—for Bobadilo—
12Better—Could I bring?
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“I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—” Introduction
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The speaker of Emily Dickinson's "I could bring You Jewels" muses on the perfect gift for a dear friend. Though the speaker imagines getting this friend expensive "Jewels," exotic perfumes and dyes, and precious "Berries" from afar, she ultimately settles on a flower from a nearby field. This choice suggests that gifts don't have to be expensive or rare to be meaningful and that people don't have to search high and low for beauty; it's already all around us. "I could bring You Jewels" was written around 1863 and, like the vast majority of Dickinson's poetry, was published posthumously.
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“I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—” Summary
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I could give you precious gemstones if I wanted to, but you already have plenty of those. I could give you perfumes from St. Domingo or dyes from Vera Cruz.
I've got fruit from the Bahamas, but this little flame-colored flower flickering all alone in the field pleases me more than any of those other options.
Nothing can measure up to this flower, which is vibrant as topaz (a bright, orangey-red gemstone) and has an emerald green stem. It's as beautiful as a wedding gift for a wealthy ruler. What better present could I give you?
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“I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—” Themes
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The Value of Thoughtful Gifts
The speaker of "I could bring You Jewels" contemplates what gift to "bring" to a dear friend. She imagines giving this friend heaps of "Jewels," perfumes, and dyes from far-off lands, but ultimately feels her love is better expressed through a little flame-colored flower she finds in the “Meadow.” The best gift isn't necessarily the most expensive or impressive one, the poem implies, but rather something that comes from the heart.
As the speaker muses about what to give to a friend, she lists off all manner of flashy, exorbitant gifts. She considers "Jewels," foreign perfumes, and exotic fruits, suggesting that she'd be willing to pay a fortune for the right gift. That she'd go all the way to "St. Domingo," "Vera Cruz," or the "Bahamas" to find a gift illustrates that she'd go to great lengths in order to express her appreciation for this friend.
Ultimately, however, the speaker foregoes expensive and exotic presents in favor of a humbler yet more personal gift. She settles on a small, flame-colored flower she finds in a field. The flower may not be expensive, glamorous, or rare, but the speaker finds its "Blaze" (or striking orange-yellow color) more enchanting than any of those other goods.
The poem subtly suggests that this is because the little flower better represents the speaker's love for her giftee. She says that the way it "Flicker[s] to itself" all alone in the field "Suits" the speaker better than those other gifts, suggesting, perhaps, that it reminds the speaker of her own burning passion.
Such a gift, the poem implies, is much more meaningful. Indeed, the speaker says that nothing could ever "match[] this Topaz," likening the flower she's picked to a vibrant, flame-colored gemstone. That she finds this flower as beautiful as any precious "Jewel" means that it is the perfect gift for her friend; it expresses both something of the speaker and of the friendship these two people share, since the friend will know this gift came from the speaker’s heart. In this way, the poem implies that the most valuable gifts are heartfelt expressions of love and intimacy.
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The Beauty of Everyday Surroundings
The speaker of "I could bring You Jewels" rejects materialism and showy status symbols, instead celebrating the humble beauty of her immediate surroundings. Rather than buy some fancy or exotic present for her friend, she chooses to pluck this friend a flower from a nearby meadow. In comparing the flower's petals and stem to peerless gemstones, the speaker suggests that people don't need to go far or spend a lot of money to find something special. Look closely, the poem implies, and you'll discover that natural beauty already exists all around.
The speaker wrestles with what to "bring" her friend, wanting to give her something beautiful but wanting it to feel personal as well. The speaker considers giving this friend "Jewels" but decides against it because her friend has "enough" of them already. This implies that the friend is well off and doesn't need another pretty but relatively cold and impersonal present (and one that would likely be lost among the friend's many other possessions).
The speaker also rejects the notion that she has to travel far and wide to find something special. She vetoes perfumes from "St. Domingo," "Berries of the Bahamas," and "Colors—from Vera Cruz" not because she can't obtain them, but because she knows she doesn’t need to; there's ample beauty right in the nearby meadow. There, she discovers a lovely little flower the color of "Topaz," its green stem like "an Emerald Swing."
Flowers may be humble, abundant, and short-lived compared to actual jewels, but that doesn't mean they’re not as lovely as any gemstone. In this way, the poem suggests there's natural beauty to be found all around—if only people stopped to look at and appreciate it.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—”
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Lines 1-2
I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—
But You have enough—of those—The poem's speaker begins the poem but considering what gift to get for a friend or loved one. She addresses this person directly, making the poem feel both intimate and conversational. Note how casual the poem's opening lines sound: the speaker makes it seem as though getting "Jewels" would be no big deal. She "could" obtain jewels if she "had a mind to"—that is, if she wanted to.
Apparently, the speaker isn't worried about cost. She dismisses the gift of jewels not because they'd be hard to get, but because her friend has "enough" already. Perhaps this friend is well-off and has no difficulty buying expensive things. Another jewel might just be one in a pile rather than something unique and special.
Notice the use of caesura in the first two lines:
I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—
But You have enough—of those—Dickinson's poetry is filled with idiosyncratic dashes like these. Here, they slow the reader down. The caesuras create a halting, hesitant rhythm, subtly enacting the way the mind sometimes moves in jumps and starts. The dashes also make the poem feel less assured and more like the reader is witnessing someone's actual mind at work—that is, like the speaker is thinking through what to get this friend in real-time.
The poem is written in rough trochaic meter, meaning that it generally follows a stressed-unstressed rhythm (DA-dum). It uses a mix of pentameter, tetrameter, and trimeter, with odd lines being longer and even lines being shorter. Here are the first two lines scanned:
I could | bring You | Jewels—had | I a | mind to—
But You | have e- | nough of | those—The second line is catalectic, meaning that it's missing the final unstressed foot. This allows it to land more emphatically on "those," as if the speaker is wryly poking fun at her friend's bounty of "Jewels."
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Lines 3-4
I could bring You Odors from St. Domingo—
Colors—from Vera Cruz— -
Lines 5-8
Berries of Bahamas—have I—
But this little Blaze
Flickering to itself—in the Meadow—
Suits Me—more than those— -
Lines 9-12
Never a Fellow matched this Topaz—
And his Emerald Swing—
Dower itself—for Bobadilo—
Better—Could I bring?
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“I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—” Symbols
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The Flower
The speaker decides to send her friend a little flame-colored flower from a nearby meadow as a token of her affection. In addition to representing the speaker's deep love, this flower becomes a symbol of the striking beauty of the everyday—the loveliness that exists all around people, if only they'd take a moment to stop and look.
Upon seeing this little flower "Flickering" to itself, the speaker knows that she's stumbled upon the perfect gift for her friend. The flower might not be as exotic as "Berries of the Bahamas" or as expensive as "Jewels," but, to the speaker, its beauty is nevertheless unmatched. It "Suits" the speaker, serving as a better representation of her feelings than a more impressive but less personal gift. Its vibrant color might represent the speaker's passion, while its solitude perhaps reflects the speaker's own humility and introversion.
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“I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Parallelism
Parallelism adds memorable music to the poem, particularly in its opening stanza:
I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—
But You have enough—of those—
I could bring You Odors from St. Domingo—
Colors—from Vera Cruz—"I could bring You Jewels" and "I could bring You Odors" are grammatically identical phrases, as are "from St. Domingo" and "from Vera Cruz." All this repetitive language suggests that the speaker could go on and on listing potential gifts. Asyndeton, or the lack of any conjunctions between the items on this list, adds to the effect; it sounds as though there is no end to the number of extravagant things that the speaker could obtain for her friend if she wanted to.
Parallelism also conveys that "Jewels," "Odors," and "Colors" are essentially just variations of the same thing. Each is an expensive, exotic item meant to express the speaker's love for her friend.
The repetition of "I could bring you" is also an example of the specific type of parallelism known as anaphora. The repetition of "could" also suggests that while everything on this list of decadent presents is within the speaker's reach, she is actually listing things she doesn't plan to give her friend because they simply don't feel special—or personal—enough.
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Alliteration
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Metaphor
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Caesura
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"I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Had I a mind to
- Odors
- St. Domingo
- Colors
- Vera Cruz
- Topaz
- Emerald Swing
- Dower
- Bobadilo
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If I wanted to.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—”
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Form
The poem's 12 lines are divided into three quatrains, or four-line stanzas. It swings back and forth between longer and shorter lines; most of those long lines contain four poetic feet, while most of the short lines contain three. The poem also uses an ABCB rhyme scheme. As such, it can be considered a riff on the ballad—the same form that Dickinson turns to often in her poetry. (Note that, unlike true ballads, the main foot here is not an iamb. More on that in the Meter section of this guide.)
The poem's comparatively loose rhythm captures some of the playfulness and informality of a close friendship. The brevity of the poem also reflects the smallness and simplicity of the gift the speaker chooses for her friend: a single flower rather than expensive "Jewels."
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Meter
The poem uses a rough mixture of trochaic tetrameter and trimeter. This means that the majority of the poem's feet are trochees: poetic units consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (DA-dum). Trochees create a strong, propulsive rhythm. The odd-numbered lines are also all longer than the even-numbered lines, creating a swinging, see-sawing sensation.
The poem is very irregular, however. Take a look at the first two lines:
I could | bring You | Jewels—had | I a | mind to—
But You | have e- | nough of | those—The first line is actually in trochaic pentameter, meaning it's made up of five trochees instead of four (the exact scansion is also a bit ambiguous; readers might hear things differently, for example placing emphasis on the word "had"). The second line is in trochaic tetrameter, meaning there are four trochees, but the last foot is catalectic (the final unstressed syllable is missing). This results in the line ending on a stressed syllable ("those"), making it sound more emphatic—the speaker really doesn't think her friend needs any more stuff.
In fact, note that all the even-numbered end with stressed beats. After the first stanza, they're also all catalectic trochaic trimeter rather than tetrameter. This means they have three trochees (the last of which is missing its final unstressed syllable):
But this | little | Blaze
Suits Me— | more than | those—
And his | Emerald | Swing—
Better— | Could I | bring?
The odd-numbered lines, meanwhile, mostly end with unstressed beats ("Domingo," "Meadow," "Bobadilo"). They're a little more irregular, but the main foot here is again the trochee and most (but not all) of them have four feet (making them trochaic tetrameter). There are also dactyls (DA-dum-dum), anapests (da-da-DUM), and iambs (da-DUM).
Check out some examples below:
Berries of | Baha- | mas—have I—
Flickering | to itself— | in the | Meadow—
Never a | Fellow | matched this | Topaz—
Dower it- | self—for | Boba- | dilo—
Though the meter isn't perfect, there's clearly a pattern. Overall, the poem's meter is regular enough to create a pleasing, propulsive rhythm, but irregular enough to evoke the informal, intimate relationship between the speaker and her friend.
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Rhyme Scheme
At first, the poem seems to follow the typical rhyme scheme of a ballad:
ABCB
The second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme, while the first and third do not. But there's a twist here: the "C" rhyme sound above ("those"/"Cruz") actually appears again in the second stanza, where it forms a slant rhyme with "Blaze" and an identical rhyme with "those." "Domingo"/"Meadow"/ "Bobadilo" are all subtle slant rhymes as well.
As such, the full rhyme scheme looks more like this:
ABCB DBCB EFCF
The general pattern is the same in each stanza, but certain rhyme sounds echo throughout the entire poem. Because these rhymes are all slant, the effect is subtle. Only the poem's final rhyme between "Swing" and "bring" is perfect, reflecting, perhaps, that by the end of the poem the speaker has settled on the perfect gift for her friend.
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“I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—” Speaker
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The speaker is someone contemplating what gift they want to present to a friend. Apparently, the speaker has plenty of money and access to exotic goods; they consider "Jewels," "Odors" (or perfumes), "Colors" (or dyes), and "Berries" from faraway locales. Ultimately, however, the speaker decides that none of these things are quite right (in part because this friend already has "enough" luxuries). The speaker chooses something much closer to home: a simple flower plucked from a nearby field. The speaker says this flower "Suits" her better than any of the other, more luxurious gifts, perhaps because the speaker herself is rather like the "little Blaze." She, too, may be solitary and humble yet bursting with a fiery passion, and thus prefers to express her love with this simple gift.
It's possible that there's no real distance between the speaker of the poem and the poet herself. Emily Dickinson wrote often about the spectacular beauty of her natural surroundings, and she was also famously reclusive, rarely traveling far from home. The speaker's tastes thus certainly seem to mirror the poet's, and we've used female pronouns in this guide for clarity's sake. That said, the poem never offers up any specific identifying information (age, gender, etc.) about the speaker or the recipient of this gift.
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“I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—” Setting
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The poem only gives the slightest glimpse of where it takes place. Though the speaker imagines giving her friend a gift from some faraway locale—"St. Domingo" or "Vera Cruz"—she ultimately turns to a nearby "Meadow." There, she finds a bright little flower, flickering like a flame in the grass and seeming more beautiful than any gemstone.
The speaker doesn't go into any further detail about her surroundings, but the fact that she was able to just go outside and pick this flower suggests that she lives in a place of abundant natural beauty (though, perhaps, that beauty is often overlooked). Readers might envision Dickinson herself writing this poem while staring out her own window at her garden or wandering in the fields near her home in Amherst, Massachusetts.
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Literary and Historical Context of “I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—”
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Literary Context
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) published almost nothing during her lifetime, and after 1865 she rarely even left her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts. But from within her circumscribed world, she explored the heights and depths of human experience through her groundbreaking poetry.
No one else sounds quite like Dickinson. Her poems use simple, folky forms—ballad stanzas, for instance—to explore profound philosophical questions, passionate loves, and the mysteries of nature. She was also often an immensely playful poet, as readers can see in the witty, whimsical imagery of "I could bring You Jewels." ("A Murmur in the Trees—to note—" is another fanciful, light-hearted Dickinson poem.)
While Dickinson didn't get too involved in the literary world of her time, she was still part of a swell of 19th-century American innovation. Her contemporary Walt Whitman (who became as famous as Dickinson was obscure) was similarly developing an unprecedented and unique poetic voice, and the Transcendentalists (like Emerson and Thoreau) shared her deep belief in the spiritual power of nature. The speaker's firm belief that a little wildflower in a nearby "Meadow" is every bit as precious as any jewel also echoes the concerns of earlier English Romantics like William Wordsworth, who emphasized the beauty and importance of the natural world.
Unknown during her lifetime, Dickinson led a very private life but became one of the world's most famous and beloved poets after her death, when her sister discovered and published a secret stash of her poems. Later artists of all stripes claim Dickinson as an influence, and not just writers: artists from the composer Samuel Barber to the director Jane Campion have responded to Dickinson's poetry in their work.
Historical Context
Dickinson's appreciation for nature's beauty fits in with a broader artistic backlash to the Industrial Revolution. This period saw rapid technological innovations emerge alongside destructive mining and logging, merciless working conditions in newly-built factories, and choking pollution as many people abandoned rural lifestyles to seek new opportunities in cities. Goods were becoming cheaper and more readily available than ever before, while imperialism and foreign trade led to rapid globalization.
Many artists of this era foresaw that such rapid production and consumption would come at a great cost to the natural world. Though it focuses on the delight of finding the perfect gift for a friend, "I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—" subtly suggests that people don't really need so much stuff, nor do they have to travel far to find something precious. Instead, the poem illustrates that there is no shortage of natural beauty right at home (and that such beauty deserves to be appreciated).
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More “I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem in Dickinson's Own Hand — Peruse Emily Dickinson's handwritten manuscripts at the Emily Dickinson Archive.
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The Poet's Life and Work — Read a Poetry Foundation biography of Emily Dickinson.
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The Poet's Family and Friends — Read about some of the people to whom Dickinson was closest (and, perhaps, who may have received a "little Blaze" from the poet).
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Listen to the Poem Out Loud — A reading of "I could bring You Jewels."
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"How Emily Dickinson Grew Her Genius in Her Family’s Backyard" — This Slate article discusses the ways Dickinson's fascination with nature fueled her poetry.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson
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