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Lyric Poem · Nature

'Twas here my summer paused

by Emily Dickinson

'Twas here my summer paused

What ripeness after then

To other scene or other soul

My sentence had begun.

To winter to remove

With winter to abide

Go manacle your icicle

Against your Tropic Bride.

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Quick facts

Poem
'Twas here my summer paused
Poet
Emily Dickinson
Length
8 lines
Form
Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes
Nature, Winter, Summer, 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
Line length
Consistent with short metre. Two short lines, one longer, one short (6.6.8.6) — the short hymn stanza.

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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
PoetryDB'Twas here my summer paused 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 27cca875d3311c41
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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