I'll tell you how the sun rose

Emily Dickinson · 1890–1896

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

9 content lines · 42 words · Est. recitation about 26 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.

I'll tell you how the sun rose, --
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.

The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
"That must have been the sun!"

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