Lyric Poem · Nature

Summer begins to have the look

by Emily Dickinson

Reading room

1Summer begins to have the look

2Peruser of enchanting Book

3Reluctantly but sure perceives

4A gain upon the backward leaves —

5Autumn begins to be inferred

6By millinery of the cloud

7Or deeper color in the shawl

8That wraps the everlasting hill.

9The eye begins its avarice

10A meditation chastens speech

11Some Dyer of a distant tree

12Resumes his gaudy industry.

13Conclusion is the course of All

14At most to be perennial

15And then elude stability

16Recalls to immortality.

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“Summer begins to have the look” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/summer-begins-to-have-the-look

Quick facts

Poem: Summer begins to have the look
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Summer, Autumn

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 · 4 quatrains
Line length: Long metre. Four eight-syllable lines (8.8.8.8), the hymn stanza's longer cousin.

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

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Author record: Emily Dickinson1830–1886
Source record: PoetryDBSummer begins to have the look 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 3fb02b8b27c3af57…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Nature Summer Autumn

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