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18 pages 36 minutes read

A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1865

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Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The form of the poem matches its tone. The diction and syntax are sparse, reflecting the brevity of the moment in which the speaker catches a glimpse of the snake. The poem is written in Dickinson’s own version of Common Meter. Traditional Common Meter usually alternates between iambic tetrameter (eight-syllable lines of alternative stressed and unstressed syllables) and iambic trimeter (six-syllable lines); however, Dickinson alters this, alternating seven- and six-syllable lines instead. Her decision to reduce the amount of syllables highlights the rushed nature of each snake encounter and the breathlessness of the speaker.

One of Dickinson’s most idiosyncratic stylistic choices is her use of dashes. The dashes are interesting because they have a variety of sometimes opposing functions. They can be end-stop punctuation that divides thoughts or, conversely, bridges connecting ideas together. They are often rhetorical devices, used for conveying emphasis or instructing readers to take a breath; however, at the same time, the dashes also permit enjambment—or the lack of end-stop punctuation which hurries readers from one line to the next. In “A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096),” the dashes reflect the fear and trembling of the speaker’s stunting, tight-chested breathing, making the experience of reading the poem more visceral.

The structure of the poem echoes Victorian riddles, which tended to be descriptive poems that coyly alluded to their subject matter without ever naming it. Here, the speaker alludes to aspects of the snake: its “narrow” appearance, its speed, its commonly mistaken habitats, and the irrational fear it evokes—markers that guide readers to guessing the poem’s subject. This structure creates distance between the fear the speaker describes and the object of that fear, allowing readers to accept Dickinson’s criticism of human tendencies to prejudge before realizing that they likely have the same response to snakes that the scientifically- and empathically-minded speaker does.

Personification

The speaker’s decision to personify the snake as a “narrow Fellow” in Line 1 deliberately obscures the central subject of the poem. Rather than fearing the snake directly, the reader must navigate language that makes the snake appear human—“riding” the ground like a horse, “dividing” the grass like a comb through hair. This need to make the snake familiar and rid of its animal qualities confirms the speaker’s seeming fear of the nonhuman—the possibility that some animals can never be “Nature’s People” (Line 11), tamable human equivalents.

Euphemism

A euphemism is a bit of speech that politely talks around an obscene or otherwise disturbing idea or word by replacing it with a more socially palatable one. In the poem, Dickinson uses the euphemism “A narrow fellow” (Line 1) to steer clear of naming the subject of the poem—a snake. This avoidance transforms the poem into a riddle and also implies that the snake is not a fit topic for polite conversation. This is of a piece with the speaker’s inescapable terror at the sight of snakes, which he cannot dissociate from their biblical connotation and thus can never simply neutrally observe as animals that are worthy of the same empathy he tries to accord other wild creatures. The euphemism “Narrow fellow” is specifically chosen: It is nominally descriptive, as snakes are indeed slender, but it also compensates for the speaker’s fear by invoking the language of conviviality from phrases like “hale fellow well met” and “jolly good fellow.” It is almost as though by making a pal out of the panic-inducing animal, the speaker hopes to appear strong when really, he is weak.

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