Sunday, February 7, 2010

A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;

You may have met him,---did you not,
His notice sudden is.


The grass divides as with a comb
A spotted shaft is seen;

And then it closes at your feet

And opens further on.


He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn.
Yet when a child, and barefoot,
I more than once, at morn,


Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun,--
When, stooping to secure it,

It wrinkled, and was gone.


Several of nature's people
I know, and they know me;

I feel for them a transport

Of cordiality;


But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,

Without a tighter breathing,

And zero at the bone.


This poem examines the one of nature’s creature, snake. Emily Dickinson never tell us this creature is snake. She describes snake as a human being by using the term fellow and “Nature’s People.” The snake passes swiftly, and divides the grass. Dickinson focuses on the snake’s appearance and its transient moves. In the last stanza, Dickinson describes the snake as a metaphor of great enemy of mankind.

1 comment:

  1. I am glad to see that you are reading some of Dickinson's poetry. You also need to find some information about the writer, herself. Your paper will not be concerned with an analysis of pieces of her poetry. It is good that you see an assortment of these poems so you get a good idea of how she approaches her work, but keep in mind that the paper is more than poetry analysis.

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