Have you got a brook in your little heart?

Summary


"Have You Got a Brook in Your Little Heart?" is a short Emily Dickinson poem that pictures the heart as a hidden stream, where bashful flowers bloom and blushing birds stop to drink. No one sees it flowing, yet it feeds daily life. Then the seasons turn: spring floods threaten the bridges, and the parched heat of August tests the water. The speaker's gentle warning asks how long such a quiet source can last.

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HAVE you got a brook in your little heart,
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so?

And nobody knows, so still it flows,
That any brook is there;
And yet your little draught of life
Is daily drunken there.

Then look out for the little brook in March,
When the rivers overflow,
And the snows come hurrying from the hills,
And the bridges often go.

And later, in August it may be,
When the meadows parching lie,
Beware, lest this little brook of life
Some burning noon go dry!


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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive 19th-century American poet, famed for her compact, startling verse and her inventive use of dashes. This poem was published after her death, and it shows her habit of turning nature into a mirror for the inner life.