A Dying Tiger—moaned for Drink

Summary


"A Dying Tiger—moaned for Drink" is a short poem in which a speaker crosses the desert sand to find water for a dying tiger. The speaker catches a few drops from a rock and carries them back in one hand, racing against time. The mood is tense and sorrowful, and the final stanza turns to blame and guilt. Dickinson asks whether a rescue that comes too late can be anyone's fault, or whether the plain fact of death is all that remains.

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A Dying Tiger—moaned for Drink—
I hunted all the Sand—
I caught the Dripping of a Rock
And bore it in my Hand—

Woman offering a few drops of water to a dying tiger on desert sand, illustrating Emily Dickinson's A Dying Tiger—moaned for Drink

His Mighty Balls—in death were thick—
But searching—I could see
A Vision on the Retina
Of Water—and of me—

’Twas not my blame—who sped too slow—
’Twas not his blame—who died
While I was reaching him—
But ’twas—the fact that He was dead—


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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, famed for her compressed lines and her signature dashes. This poem shows her fascination with loss, and its stark scene of a desert and a dying animal is unusual in her work.