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The sky is low, the clouds are mean
Emily Dickinson · 1890–1896
Catalog grade guidance: 3–5 — Short Dickinson lyric; punctuation/dashes may need a brief teacher note.
8 content lines · 45 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.
The sky is low, the clouds are mean, A travelling flake of snow Across a barn or through a rut Debates if it will go. A narrow wind complains all day How some one treated him; Nature, like us, is sometimes caught Without her diadem.