Food is the nourishment that sustains life. By stating that fame
is a food, the poet suggests that some people use it for
nourishment. The real meaning of this metaphor lies in the use of
the adjectives 'fickle" to describe the food, fame, and in the use
of "shifting" to describe the plate used for serving fame. The poet
also extends the metaphor and adds another layer of meaning when
she references that crows, unlike man, actually inspect the food of
fame, and see it for what it is, and flap past it to fame's
opposite, the very basic farmer's corn, while men eat fame and die,
suggesting that Nature is wiser than man. Obviously, Emily
Dickinson is speaking of spiritual, not physical, death.
