The Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s Poem

郭霞

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson（1830 – 1886）was born in Amherst，Massachusetts from a socially prominent family. She attended Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Around 1850 she began to write poems. Ever since the first publication of Dickinsons poetry，the critics were very interested in her，because of her excellent talent for literature and her special recluse life.

Dickinson loved the animals in nature，not only the animals that are usually loved by all people，but also some not so beloved animals. And she has written them down in her poems. Serpent usually symbolizes wisdom，subtlety and the Devil in western culture. In the Bible，Jesus tells his disciples to “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves”（Li Juan and Wei Yuqi 32）. According to Genesis，the serpent was more subtle than any other creatures that God had made. And the Devil was in the disguise of a serpent when he tempted Eve to take the forbidden fruit. Nevertheless，Dickinson wrote a poem about it and the poem was outstanding in the description of serpent.

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 feetAnd opens further on—He likes a Boggy AcreA floor too cool for corn—Yet，when a Boy，and Barefoot—I more than once at NoonHave passed，I thought，a Whip lashUnbraiding in the SunWhen stopping to secure itIt wrinkled，and was gone—Several of Natures PeopleI know，and they know me—I feel for them a transportOf cordiality—But never met this FellowAttended，or aloneWithout a tighter breathingAnd Zero at the Bone—

Apparently，this is a poem about serpent. However，there is no such word through out the poem. Readers can still figure this out from the following several aspects. First，the creature lives “in the Grass” and likes the “Boggy Acre”. Then “narrow” shows the shape of the creature. Whats more，“And then it closes at your feet/ And opens further on—” indicates how fast the creature moves in the grass. These vividly showed the scene when the creature appears. And the feeling，when seeing it，is “a tighter breathing” and “Zero at the Bone”. The creature arises a chill feeling from the heart and it is always frightening. Combining the scene and the feeling with daily experience，it is very easy to figure out the creature is serpent.

And in this poem，Dickinson used three very common things in life to illustrate serpent. They are “comb”，“spotted shaft” and “whip”. The three metaphors are very vivid and novel. “The Grass divides as with a Comb” fully described how the grass looks like when crossed by a serpent. And the “spotted shaft” both shows the fast speed of the serpent and its piebald skin. The “whip” is the motionless state of the serpent in the sun.

Dickinson carefully chose words in the poem. She used many words that contained the syllable “s”，such as grass，rides，notice，is，closes，opens，likes，once，was，Natures and this. When reading it，readers will have the very real feeling that there is a serpent nearby，because the noise the serpent makes is very similar to the sound “s”.

Also，Dickinson has used “a series of alliteration” to achieve the effect. The words— sudden，spotted，shaft，seen，sun，stopping，secure，several— are all begin with the letter “s”. The shape of the letter can be imagined as the shape of a serpent.

In the poem，Dickinson called the serpent “Fellow” and regarded it as one of “Natures People”. And also she said “I feel for them a transport/ Of cordiality—”. This shows clearly that she regard the serpent equally as other creatures in nature. However，she still can not escape the chill feeling when saw it. “But never met this Fellow” “Without a tighter breathing/ And Zero at the Bone—” She took a controversial attitude on the serpent.

No matter how to say，the usually scare animal under her pen，became more tender and lovely. She always appreciates them，even if some of them usually carry negative meanings in the cultural background，such as the serpent. By her remarkable writing skills，such as metaphor，personification，ellipsis and so on，the animal lived vividly in readers minds.

Works Cited

[1]Dickinson，Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. US：Electronic Classics Series Publication，2003.

[2]Li Juan，and Wei Yuqi，ed. “Matthew 10”，New Testment. Tianjin：Tianjin Peoples Publishing House，2003.

[3]Martin，Wendy. The Cambridge Companions to Emily Dickinson. Shanghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2003.

[4]劉晓晖，”百年艾米莉·狄金森研究管窥”，《国外文学》1（2007）：28-36。

[5]王晓燕，“论爱米莉·狄金森的自然诗”，《内蒙古财经学院学报》（综合版）7（2009）：72-74。