Lyric Poem · Nature

The Mountain sat upon the Plain

by Emily Dickinson

In his tremendous Chair —

His observation omnifold,

His inquest, everywhere —

The Seasons played around his knees

Like Children round a sire —

Grandfather of the Days is He

Of Dawn, the Ancestor —

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“The Mountain sat upon the Plain” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/the-mountain-sat-upon-the-plain

Quick facts

Poem: The Mountain sat upon the Plain
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 8 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes: Nature, Childhood, Short

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: 8 lines · 2 quatrains
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: Consistent with 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: PoetryDBThe Mountain sat upon the Plain 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 cafea2b7c12270a2…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Short Poems Nature Childhood Short

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