Emily Dickinson

A fuzzy fellow, without feet

Summary


"A fuzzy fellow, without feet" is a playful Emily Dickinson poem that sets a riddle about a velvet-coated creature who runs without legs. It follows him through grass and branches, down onto passers-by, and into a silken winter hideaway. Then spring arrives with a surprising change. Dickinson keeps the creature's name hidden until the final stanza, so the poem feels like a whispered secret shared between the poet and the reader.

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A fuzzy fellow, without feet,
Yet doth exceeding run!
Of velvet, is his Countenance,
And his Complexion, dun!

Sometime, he dwelleth in the grass!
Sometime, upon a bough,
From which he doth descend in plush
Upon the Passer-by!

A fuzzy caterpillar on a leafy branch with a butterfly nearby, illustrating Emily Dickinson's poem A fuzzy fellow, without feet

All this in summer.
But when winds alarm the Forest Folk,
He taketh Damask Residence—
And struts in sewing silk!

Then, finer than a Lady,
Emerges in the spring!
A Feather on each shoulder!
You’d scarce recognize him!

By Men, yclept Caterpillar!
By me! But who am I,
To tell the pretty secret
Of the Butterfly!

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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, famed for her short, inventive verse and distinctive dashes. Here she writes in the voice of a riddle, using old-fashioned words like "yclept" to give a tiny garden creature a courtly air.