How Soft a Caterpillar Steps : Emily Dickinson's Nature Mysticism

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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).