An altered look about the hills

Emily Dickinson · 1890–1896

Catalog grade guidance: 3–5 — Short Dickinson lyric; punctuation/dashes may need a brief teacher note.

16 content lines · 90 words · Est. recitation about 51 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg Dickinson series hosted as poems-of-emily-dickinson.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

An altered look about the hills;
A Tyrian light the village fills;
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;
A print of a vermilion foot;
A purple finger on the slope;
A flippant fly upon the pane;
A spider at his trade again;
An added strut in chanticleer;
A flower expected everywhere;
An axe shrill singing in the woods;
Fern-odors on untravelled roads, --
All this, and more I cannot tell,
A furtive look you know as well,
And Nicodemus' mystery
Receives its annual reply.