Lyric Poem · Nature

Before you thought of Spring

by Emily Dickinson

Except as a Surmise

You see — God bless his suddenness —

A Fellow in the Skies

Of independent Hues

A little weather worn

Inspiriting habiliments

Of Indigo and Brown —

With specimens of Song

As if for you to choose —

Discretion in the interval

With gay delays he goes

To some superior Tree

Without a single Leaf

And shouts for joy to Nobody

But his seraphic self —

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“Before you thought of Spring” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/before-you-thought-of-spring

Quick facts

Poem: Before you thought of Spring
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Spring, Peace

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 · one 16-line stanza
Line length: Mostly 6-syllable lines (trimeter length).

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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: PoetryDBBefore you thought of Spring 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 41272178b7876754…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Nature Spring Peace

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