Emily Dickinson

The Secret

Summary


The Secret, a short poem by Emily Dickinson, sets three quiet stanzas side by side: things that fly, things that stay, and things that rise while resting. Birds, hours, and the bumble-bee pass without mourning, while grief, hills, and eternity stay put. The speaker's voice turns from certainty to wonder, ending on a question about the skies. A brief, hushed riddle that rewards a slow second reading.

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Some things that fly there be,—
Birds, hours, the bumble-bee:
Of these no elegy.

Some things that stay there be,—
Grief, hills, eternity:
Nor this behooveth me.

There are, that resting, rise.
Can I expound the skies?
How still the riddle lies!

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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, celebrated for her compact, dash-filled verse. In this poem she turns that economy to a riddle, naming no answer and leaving the "secret" for the reader to guess.