Emily Dickinson

A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree

Summary


A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree opens with a single raindrop and swells into a full summer shower. Emily Dickinson's poem follows the water from the roof to the eaves, where the gables seem to laugh, and out to the brook racing toward the sea. The speaker wonders whether the drops are pearls, then watches dust settle, birds sing louder, and sunshine toss aside his hat. Playful and bright, it turns weather into a festival.

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A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree—
Another—on the Roof—
A Half a Dozen kissed the Eaves—
And made the Gables laugh—

Raindrops falling on an apple tree and cottage roof, illustrating Emily Dickinson's poem A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree

A few went out to help the Brook
That went to help the Sea—
Myself Conjectured were they Pearls—
What Necklace could be—

The Dust replaced, in Hoisted Roads—
The Birds jocoser sung—
The Sunshine threw his Hat away—
The Bushes—spangles flung—

The Breezes brought dejected Lutes—
And bathed them in the Glee—
Then Orient showed a single Flag,
And signed the Fete away—

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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, famed for her short, dashing lines and inventive punctuation. Here her signature dashes mimic the quick patter of falling drops, and she gives the storm a cast of characters, from laughing gables to a sun that throws away his hat.