Lyric Poem · Life

A little Dog that wags his tail

by Emily Dickinson

Reading room

1A little Dog that wags his tail

2And knows no other joy

3Of such a little Dog am I

4Reminded by a Boy

5Who gambols all the living Day

6Without an earthly cause

7Because he is a little Boy

8I honestly suppose —

9The Cat that in the Corner dwells

10Her martial Day forgot

11The Mouse but a Tradition now

12Of her desireless Lot

13Another class remind me

14Who neither please nor play

15But not to make a "bit of noise"

16Beseech each little Boy —

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“A little Dog that wags his tail” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/a-little-dog-that-wags-his-tail

Quick facts

Poem: A little Dog that wags his tail
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Life

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 16 lines · 4 quatrains
Line length: Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Emily Dickinson1830–1886
Source record: PoetryDBA little Dog that wags his tail by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 e39b2c5faf3714b1…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Life

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