In Emily Dickinson's essay “Publishing is the Auction,” the speaker expresses her complicated negative feelings about publishing. Through a series of literary devices (such as the opening metaphor), stylistic choices (such as the use of hyphens and capitalization), and mixed diction (ranging from the religious to the simply aesthetic) the speaker argues that publication puts a strain on the a writer's integrity and is essentially selling out. In the first stanza, the speaker states his clear disdain for publishing one's work by referring to publication as "dirty" and using a metaphor stating that "Publication is the rod / of man's mind." Dickinson then strategically uses enjambment between the last sentence of the first verse ("For so foul a thing") and the first sentence of the second verse ("Possibly—but We—would prefer") to pose this immediately contrasting idea that, Although poverty might be a justifying reason for a writer to resort to publishing, it is still a questionable decision after all. The first stanza is also the only one that does not end with a hyphen. This, along with enjambment, allows the reader to easily continue from one stanza to the next while keeping the idea of ​​the previous stanza in mind. The dashes throughout the piece can be read as a stream of consciousness representing the resulting discontinuity. thinking: the inherent pauses and fractions of a second we take to collect our thoughts. It is the verbal “uh” or “like” moment of the poem. When read aloud, hyphens give the poem this slightly questionable sound, almost as if the speaker is slightly uncertain about his argument. Typically, but not always, when a person is confident, he or she pauses less while speaking... middle of paper... this can be spotted in the second verse where the "White Creator" is mentioned at the end of the line 3. The speaker is saying that instead of resorting to publishing to survive poverty, one would rather go straight from one's "attic" to God or the "White Creator". So, instead of selling out, "We" would rather die and go to God and heaven if it meant saving our work from publication and, in turn, saving our integrity. The speaker in “Publication – is the Auction” successfully portrays his or her anger towards the. publishing and expresses that reducing a poet's words and thoughts to commercial value is disrespectful. In four stanzas, the speaker argues that publishing puts a strain on a writer by pushing him to conform to make a profit. This is an unjustifiable act not even from poverty and the publication is finally selling out.