"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 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.
Discussion Questions:
1. What is the narrator's attitude toward snakes? Support with evidence from the text.
2. What do you think "Zero at the Bone" means?
1. I think she likes them, like she's interested, because she says "When stooping to secure it", which implies she wants to see it. But I still think she is a little squeamish, because she says "But never met this Fellow
ReplyDeleteAttended or alone
Without a tighter Breathing", saying that she still gets a little nervous when she is around a snake.
Agreed. She (or the narrator, who seems to be a he) doesn't freak out about them, even likes them, but still has that innate fear/worry around them. Kind of like how I'm not afraid of mice, but if one shoots out from under the couch when I'm not expecting it, I will give a little shriek because it startles me.
Delete2. I don't know, maybe she means she gets weak in the knees, type of thing? Like she just is so nervous she feels all watery-boned?
ReplyDeleteYeah, like her bones are zero all of a sudden. It's a cool phrase.
Delete1. She likes them, as is kind of implied in the fact that she wrote a whole poem about them without saying anything nasty about them, and she speaks with a kind of fascination, I guess. But still everyone is instinctively nervous around snakes, which is shown in the last verse.
ReplyDeleteExactly!
Delete2. She feels like Gilderoy Lockhart just removed all her bones. (Someday I WILL be able to do my poetry homework without goofing off, but today is not that day!) I guess she's saying that she feels weak, like she doesn't have bones.
ReplyDelete😂
DeleteHaha! Yes, she definitely had Lockhart in mind here. Because Lockhart and snakes just go together, after all.
Delete