"Adrift! A little boat adrift!

" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

Adrift! A little boat adrift![1] And night is coming down![2] Will no one guide a little boat[3] Unto the nearest town?[4] So Sailors say -- on yesterday --[5] Just as the dusk was brown[6] One little boat gave up its strife[7] And gurgled down and down.[8] So angels say -- on yesterday --[9] Just as the dawn was red[10] One little boat -- o'erspent with gales --[11] Retrimmed its masts -- redecked its sails --[12] And shot -- exultant on![13]
Poem 30 [F6] "Adrift! A little boat adrift!" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

The boat in the poem is a metaphor for the soul of a man sailing on the 'wondrous sea' of life of poem 4. The crisis of the night of his death approaches. The next day different reports are given of what happened. The unbelieving mourners, characterised as Sailors, report that at dusk the boat gurgled down into extinction, but the angels and those on the side of the angels report that at dawn the boat sped exultant on into eternity. The 'So' in lines 5 and 9 both times means 'As follows.' For example, 'Sailors say as follows.'
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