I Started Early—Took My Dog

Source

Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #12242, Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete Source URL: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12242 Public domain basis: Complete text of the three posthumous series edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson (1890, 1891, 1896), with their editorial titles and regularized punctuation. Public domain. Coverage: Complete individual poem extracted from parent edition poems-of-emily-dickinson at bytes 91175-91857; checksum b3ba99b7d4816ba9e8d01870c75be88395c76ee5a531c564577838f7a3720e19.

# I Started Early—Took My Dog

I Started Early—Took My Dog

XIX.

BY THE SEA.

I started early, took my dog, And visited the sea; The mermaids in the basement Came out to look at me,

And frigates in the upper floor Extended hempen hands, Presuming me to be a mouse Aground, upon the sands.

But no man moved me till the tide Went past my simple shoe, And past my apron and my belt, And past my bodice too,

And made as he would eat me up As wholly as a dew Upon a dandelion's sleeve -- And then I started too.

And he -- he followed close behind; I felt his silver heel Upon my ankle, -- then my shoes Would overflow with pearl.

Until we met the solid town, No man he seemed to know; And bowing with a mighty look At me, the sea withdrew.