By The Sea
Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)
I started early, took my dog,
And visited the sea;
The mermaids in the basement
Came out to look at me.
And frigates in the upper floor
Extended hempen hands,
Presuming me to be a mouse
Aground, upon the sands.
But no man moved me till the tide
Went past my simple shoe,
And past my apron and my belt,
And past my bodice too,
And made as he would eat me up
As wholly as a dew
Upon a dandelion's sleeve -
And then I started too.
And he - he followed close behind;
I felt his silver heel
Upon my ankle, - then my shoes
Would overflow with pearl.
Until we met the solid town,
No man he seemed to know;
And bowing with a mighty look
At me, the sea withdrew.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 583 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC XCXC XXXX XXXC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 643 |
Words | 136 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"By The Sea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/11562/by-the-sea>.
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