The Grass

Summary


In "The Grass," a short poem to read online, Emily Dickinson looks at a green meadow with playful envy. The grass has little to do but host butterflies, entertain bees, sway to the breeze and wear dew like pearls. Her speaker drifts through a gentle, sunlit mood, watching even the grass's fragrant afterlife in the barn as hay. The central tension is a quiet longing: what would it feel like to be so free of worry?

Read Online

THE grass so little has to do,—
A sphere of simple green,
With only butterflies to brood,
And bees to entertain,

And stir all day to pretty tunes
The breezes fetch along,
And hold the sunshine in its lap
And bow to everything;

And thread the dews all night, like pearls,
And make myself so fine,—
A duchess were too common
For such a noticing.

And even when it dies, to pass
In odors so divine,
As lowly spices gone to sleep,
Or amulets of pine

And then to dwell in sovereign barns,
And dream the days away,—
The grass so little has to do,
I wish I were the hay!


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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, known for her compact, dash-filled verse and inventive imagery. "The Grass" shows her habit of finding wonder in small natural things, ending on a wry, wistful wish.