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Lyric Poem · Nature

She rose to His Requirement—dropt

by Emily Dickinson

She rose to His Requirement — dropt

The Playthings of Her Life

To take the honorable Work

Of Woman, and of Wife —

If ought She missed in Her new Day,

Of Amplitude, or Awe —

Or first Prospective — Or the Gold

In using, wear away,

It lay unmentioned — as the Sea

Develop Pearl, and Weed,

But only to Himself — be known

The Fathoms they abide —

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Quick facts

Poem
She rose to His Requirement—dropt
Poet
Emily Dickinson
Length
12 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
12 lines · 3 quatrains
Line length
Common metre. Alternating eight- and six-syllable lines — the hymn stanza (8.6.8.6), the most-used quatrain in English verse.

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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
PoetryDBShe rose to His Requirement—dropt 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 bb7ee626ab01f899
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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