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Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

My wheel is in the dark!

by Emily Dickinson

1My wheel is in the dark!

2I cannot see a spoke

3Yet know its dripping feet

4Go round and round.

5My foot is on the Tide!

6An unfrequented road —

7Yet have all roads

8A clearing at the end —

9Some have resigned the Loom —

10Some in the busy tomb

11Find quaint employ —

12Some with new — stately feet —

13Pass royal through the gate —

14Flinging the problem back

15At you and I!

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Quick facts

Poem
My wheel is in the dark!
Poet
Emily Dickinson
Length
15 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Death & Loss

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
15 lines · 4 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
Mostly 6-syllable lines (trimeter length).
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
PoetryDBMy wheel is in the dark! 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 4b25b6287fa20d09
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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