How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

About

Genius Annotation

This poem was first available to the public in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson from 1924, but was composed much earlier than that, probably before 1866.

Dickinson holds nature up to her powerfully inquisitive imagination, and yields some insightful definitions. The poem is a dialogue between two voices in which she contrasts a concrete, visual view of nature; an aural view and what amounts to an emotional expression, an abstract. It is also, arguably, a transcedental view of what is around us, in accordance with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s view of what nature can teach us.

Structure
The poem comprises twelve lines divided into three groups of four lines, effectively quatrains. The first deals with nature as concrete and visual, conveyed with dashes and visual examples. The section section relates to what we can hear. The third sction is what we know and sense, though these perceptions are beyond expression. In this part the narrative is smooth, without punctuation and with enjambed line endings, conveying a sense of nearing the essence of what she is feeling.

Language and Imagery
The visual description of nature is expressed in concrete terms — a squirrel, eclipse, bee. Sounds follow on — onomatopoeic as in “Thunder”, and the percussive consonants of “bobolink” (a migratory bird) and “cricket”. The third section is abstract and smooth-flowing. Nature is personified as “her”, emphasising her power and impact on humans.

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Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

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