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Emily Dickinson's Nature Mysticism : A Photo Poetic Labyrinth Prev | Index | Next | Insect Worlds | Dickinson's Herbarium | Search | |||||
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Circuit III - (16) (Preface) How Soft a Caterpillar Steps (J-1448) (F-1523) | |||||
(1) How soft a caterpillar steps! I find one on my hand; (2) From such a velvet world it came, Such plushes at command, (3) Its soundless travels just arrest My slow, terrestrial eye (4) Intent upon its circuit quaint, What use has it for me? (Below: the 1945 BOLTS OF MELODY version [p.302] with an additional bracketed couplet in the center, which Dickinson had crossed out in the original manuscript.) (1) How soft a caterpillar steps! I find one on my hand; (2) From such a velvet world it came, Such plushes at command, (2+) [Its journey never wakes my hand Till poising for a turn] (3) Its soundless travels just arrest My slow terrestrial eye (4) Intent upon its circuit quaint What use has it for me? (Below: the first version above with line breaks, according to the original manuscript, excepting "command" which wraps its line.) (1) How soft a Caterpillar steps I find one on my Hand (2) From such a Velvet world it came Such plushes at command, (3) Its soundless travels just arrest My slow, terrestrial eye (4) Intent upon its circuit quaint, What use has it for me ~ Emily Dickinson | |||||
Commentary adapted from Emily Dickinson's Poems & Letters | |||||
(1)
"I quite forgot the rosebugs when I spoke of the buds, last evening, and I found a family of them taking an early breakfast on my most precious bud, with a smart little worm for landlady, so the sweetest are gone..." ~ (L #124) | |||||
(1-2) (caterpillar riddle)
"Sometime, he dwelleth in the grass! Sometime, upon a bough, from which he doth descend in plush upon the passer-by!" ~ (J-0173) (F-0171) | |||||
(1-3)
"Science is very near us I found a megatherium on my strawberry." [A megatherium is a huge extinct sloth.] ~ Fragment #102 | |||||
(1-4) "Fascination is portable." ~ (L #280) | |||||
(3) "I saw a caterpillar measure a leaf far down in the orchard." (L #610) | |||||
(3-4)
"Who ponders this tremendous scene
this whole Experiment of Green . . ." (J-1333) (F-1459) | |||||
(4)
"[It noticed neither] night did soft descend,
nor constellation burn, intent upon the vision of latitudes unknown." ~ (J-0078) (F-0125) | |||||
(4-comparative: Zen-Taoism = wei wu wei = doing not doing) "Four trees upon a solitary acre without design or order, or apparent action maintain." ~ (J-0742) (F-0778) | |||||
(4)
"Existence in itself without a further function omnipotence enough " ~ (J-0677) (F-0876) | |||||
![]() (Compare: Caterpillar Riddle) (note on line 17: "yclept" means "called") A fuzzy fellow, without feet, Yet doth exceeding run! Of velvet, is his Countenance, And his Complexion, dun! Sometime, he dwelleth in the grass! Sometime, upon a bough, From which he doth descend in plush Upon the Passer-by! All this in summer. But when winds alarm the Forest Folk, He taketh Damask Residence -- And struts in sewing silk! Then, finer than a Lady, Emerges in the spring! A Feather on each shoulder! You'd scarce recognize him! By Men, yclept Caterpillar! By me! But who am I, To tell the pretty secret Of the Butterfly! ~ (J-0173) (F-0171) | |||||
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Photo Credit: earlywomenmasters.net Caterpillar (Hyphantria cunea, fall webworm?) on Leaves of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia). | |||||