Lyric Poem · Life

As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies

by Emily Dickinson

As the Vulture teased

Forces the Broods in lonely Valleys

As the Tiger eased

By but a Crumb of Blood, fasts Scarlet

Till he meet a Man

Dainty adorned with Veins and Tissues

And partakes — his Tongue

Cooled by the Morsel for a moment

Grows a fiercer thing

Till he esteem his Dates and Cocoa

A Nutrition mean

I, of a finer Famine

Deem my Supper dry

For but a Berry of Domingo

And a Torrid Eye.

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“As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/as-the-starved-maelstrom-laps-the-navies

Quick facts

Poem: As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Life

Craft notes

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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

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

Author record: Emily Dickinson1830–1886
Source record: PoetryDBAs the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies 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 ed9c5897b7dae607…
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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