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By Emily Dickinson

A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides –
You may have met him? Did you not
His notice instant 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 –
But when a Boy and Barefoot
I more than once at Noon


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.


Notes:

Note to POL students: The inclusion or omission of the numeral in the title of the poem should not affect the accuracy score. It is optional during recitation. 

Emily Dickinson, "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" from The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright ©  1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition (Harvard University Press, 1998)

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Poet Bio

Emily Dickinson
The famous hermit from Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson published only eight poems during her lifetime. Today her nearly 2,000 succinct, profound meditations on life and death, nature, love, and art make her one of the most original and important poets in English. See More By This Poet

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