Lyric Poem · Winter
In Winter in my Room
In Winter in my Room
I came upon a Worm —
Pink, lank and warm —
But as he was a worm
And worms presume
Not quite with him at home —
Secured him by a string
To something neighboring
And went along.
A Trifle afterward
A thing occurred
I'd not believe it if I heard
But state with creeping blood —
A snake with mottles rare
Surveyed my chamber floor
In feature as the worm before
But ringed with power —
The very string with which
I tied him — too
When he was mean and new
That string was there —
I shrank — "How fair you are"!
Propitiation's claw —
"Afraid," he hissed
"Of me"?
"No cordiality" —
He fathomed me —
Then to a Rhythm Slim
Secreted in his Form
As Patterns swim
Projected him.
That time I flew
Both eyes his way
Lest he pursue
Nor ever ceased to run
Till in a distant Town
Towns on from mine
I set me down
This was a dream.
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“In Winter in my Room” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/in-winter-in-my-room
Quick facts
- Poem
- In Winter in my Room
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 39 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Winter, Nature, Dreams & Sleep
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
- 39 lines · 5 stanzas of 4–10 lines
- Line length
- Lines run 4-6 syllables (median 5). 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 committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- PoetryDBIn Winter in my Room 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 831048f4ef03619c…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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