Lyric Poem · Nature
A narrow Fellow in the Grass
by Emily Dickinson · 1891
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.
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“A narrow Fellow in the Grass” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/a-narrow-fellow-in-the-grass
Quick facts
- Poem
- A narrow Fellow in the Grass
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Published
- 1891
- Length
- 23 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature
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
- 23 lines · 6 stanzas of 3–4 lines
- End rhyme
- No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 6), consistent with trimeter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- WikisourceA narrow Fellow in the Grass by emily-dickinson, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1891
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 83d6d16ce075af05…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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