The second interpretation of this poem is that Dickinson is being deliberately mischievous and subversive. The Temperance movement was a religious organisation that urged people to abstain from alcohol. This eventually resulted in Prohibition, a complete ban on alcohol, which was made law in 1920. As with many aspects of Calvinism, Dickinson did not approve of the Temperance movement. A lot of the vocabulary she uses in the poem was also used by this movement, but in a very negative sense. Here, Dickinson subverts negative terms like ‘inebriate’ and ‘debauchee’. By doing so, she may be mocking the Temperance movement. If this is the case, the poem is very much a witty joke – essentially saying that you cannot get drunk on a liquor that has never been brewed, you can only get drunk on a liquor that has been brewed – and Dickinson certainly suggests that this would not be an unpleasant experience! The final stanza of the poem, could then be interpreted as sarcastic – a joke at the expense of those who claimed that only abstinence and denial could bring you closer to God and to heaven: ‘Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats –/ And Saints – to windows run –/ To see the little Tippler / Leaning against the – Sun –’. This interpretation demonstrates Dickinson’s independent mind and her rejection of the social and religious norms of her time. It also shows that there is a playful and rebellious side to her nature.
