Lyric Poem · Nature

The Road was lit with Moon and star

by Emily Dickinson

Reading room

1The Road was lit with Moon and star —

2The Trees were bright and still —

3Descried I — by the distant Light

4A Traveller on a Hill —

5To magic Perpendiculars

6Ascending, though Terrene —

7Unknown his shimmering ultimate —

8But he indorsed the sheen —

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“The Road was lit with Moon and star” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/the-road-was-lit-with-moon-and-star

Quick facts

Poem: The Road was lit with Moon and star
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 8 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes: Nature, 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 · one 8-line stanza
Line length: Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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: PoetryDBThe Road was lit with Moon and star 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 8a3ff5c4b8347a58…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Short Poems Nature Short

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