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I started Early — Took my Dog — Summary & Analysis
by Emily Dickinson

I started Early — Took my Dog — Summary & Analysis
by Emily Dickinson

  • Introduction
  • Summary
  • Themes
  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
  • Symbols
  • Poetic Devices
  • Vocabulary & References
  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
  • Speaker
  • Setting
  • Context
  • Resources
  • Download PDF
  • Download Teacher Edition
  • Intro
  • Summary
  • Themes
  • Line-by-Line
    Explanations
  • Symbols
  • Poetic
    Devices
  • Vocabulary &
    References
  • Form, Meter, &
    Rhyme Scheme
  • Speaker
  • Setting
  • Context
  • Resources
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The Full Text of “I started Early — Took my Dog —”

1I started Early – Took my Dog –

2And visited the Sea –

3The Mermaids in the Basement

4Came out to look at me –

5And Frigates – in the Upper Floor

6Extended Hempen Hands –

7Presuming Me to be a Mouse –

8Aground – opon the Sands –

9But no Man moved Me – till the Tide

10Went past my simple Shoe –

11And past my Apron – and my Belt

12And past my Boddice – too –

13And made as He would eat me up –

14As wholly as a Dew

15Opon a Dandelion's Sleeve –

16And then – I started – too –

17And He – He followed – close behind –

18I felt His Silver Heel

19Opon my Ancle – Then My Shoes

20Would overflow with Pearl –

21Until We met the Solid Town –

22No One He seemed to know –

23And bowing – with a Mighty look –

24At me – The Sea withdrew –

The Full Text of “I started Early — Took my Dog —”

1I started Early – Took my Dog –

2And visited the Sea –

3The Mermaids in the Basement

4Came out to look at me –

5And Frigates – in the Upper Floor

6Extended Hempen Hands –

7Presuming Me to be a Mouse –

8Aground – opon the Sands –

9But no Man moved Me – till the Tide

10Went past my simple Shoe –

11And past my Apron – and my Belt

12And past my Boddice – too –

13And made as He would eat me up –

14As wholly as a Dew

15Opon a Dandelion's Sleeve –

16And then – I started – too –

17And He – He followed – close behind –

18I felt His Silver Heel

19Opon my Ancle – Then My Shoes

20Would overflow with Pearl –

21Until We met the Solid Town –

22No One He seemed to know –

23And bowing – with a Mighty look –

24At me – The Sea withdrew –

  • “I started Early — Took my Dog —” Introduction

    • The influential American poet Emily Dickinson wrote "I started Early – Took my Dog –" sometime around 1862. In the poem, a young woman walks to the shore with her dog and looks at the sea. The boats and mermaids seem to call out to the speaker, while the water, treated as a male figure in the poem, begins to creep up the speaker's body. She initially seems excited by this, but as the tide turns and the sea makes to consume the speaker, she abruptly turns away and rushes back to town. According to many readers, these events suggest that the speaker experiences a sexual awakening yet struggles to embrace her own sexual desires. The poem can also be read as being more generally about the allure of adventure, escape, and temptation, and about the simultaneous thrill and fear of embracing the new and unknown. The poem features common meter, as is the case with much of Dickinson's writing. Dickinson left her work untitled, and this poem's title is taken from its first line.

  • “I started Early — Took my Dog —” Summary

    • The speaker set out early in the morning to walk her dog along the shore. There, she looked out at the water and saw mermaids rising from the depths of the sea to stare back at her.

      The speaker also saw large warships on the water's surface. The ropes hanging off the sides of these ships looked like hands reaching out to her, as if the speaker were a mouse stranded on the shore and the ropes wanted to lift her up and take her away.

      No man had ever filled the speaker with such intense feelings until the ocean slowly enveloped her, creeping past her feet, sliding up past her dress, past her waist, and beyond her undergarments.

      The water surrounded the speaker's body as if it wanted to devour her, or completely cover her like the fine mist that coats the stem of a dandelion. The speaker startled to attention with a jolt.

      The sea followed the speaker as she rushed away from the waterline, and she felt the tempting waters still grasping at her legs as her shoes sloshed with white froth.

      The sea continued to follow the speaker until she reached the firm ground of a nearby town, which was unfamiliar to the sea. The water held back for a moment, cast the speaker a long and powerful glance, and then left her alone.

  • “I started Early — Took my Dog —” Themes

    • Theme Adventure, Freedom, and the Allure of the Unknown

      Adventure, Freedom, and the Allure of the Unknown

      On the most basic level, the poem is about temptation, desire, and adventure. To the speaker, the deep, powerful ocean waters represent a chance for a new experience or, perhaps, for some sort of escape from her life on land. She feels both pulled towards and frightened of the sea, only momentarily giving into her desire to feels its embrace—to experience the total freedom it offers—before scurrying away towards "the Solid Town" (figuratively, to more secure, familiar footing).

      What exactly the sea represents here is up for debate. Maybe it's a stand-in for the depths of the speaker's mind, and she fears fully diving into her own thoughts and imagination—which she keeps in check, closely hemmed in, when not strolling by the water. Perhaps it suggests that the speaker momentarily wishes to break free from the societal expectations of that "Solid Town," but quickly wishes to return to the structure and comfort of a world she knows.

      What's important to grasp is how the poem balances the speaker's many emotions surrounding the pull of her desire for adventure and freedom, and how these conflict with the safety and security of familiar life on land. In other words, the poem suggests that stepping away from the structure of society is both exhilarating and terrifying.

      Indeed, the water seems so alluring to the speaker because it is so foreign, so unknown. It's filled with magical mermaids (who themselves find the speaker to be strange, evidenced by the fact that they stare right back at her). The large ships on the surface of the water feel friendly, their metaphorical "Hempen Hands" (i.e., their ropes) seeming to reach out to the speaker and help her take her first timid steps towards a new and exciting adventure.

      The speaker, for her part, is timid and inexperienced. She's "a Mouse / Aground — opon the Sands," implying that she has never before strayed too far from the world she knows. To her, the sea seems to ultimately represent a unique kind of freedom from the rules and expectations of society, and a chance to become someone entirely new. Soon enough, though, she scurries back to town, where the sea doesn't "know" anyone. The humdrum expectations of daily life are antithetical to the adventure and freedom offered by the sea, the poem suggests, even as it implies that such freedom can be utterly overwhelming.

    • Theme Sexual Awakening and Desire

      Sexual Awakening and Desire

      While on a general level the poem can be thought of as being about the broad desire for adventure and freedom, it's impossible to discuss the poem without noting its strong sexual undertones. In fact, many readers interpret the poem as being specifically about a sexual experience or awakening of some sort.

      Note that the sea in the poem is personified as a man, and that the speaker at first finds him alluring. The speaker also implies that she is sexually inexperienced and has never been touched by a man in the way the ocean eventually touches her—making this moment new and unfamiliar. Yet despite her initial interest in this experience, the speaker soon feels threatened when it seems like the ocean is about to “eat [her] up,” at which point she tries to end the encounter by retreating to a nearby town. In this way, the poem spotlights the excitement of sexual possibility while also exploring the speaker’s hesitancy to fully give herself over to this kind of experience.

      The speaker’s interest in seeking out a sexual encounter is made evident by her depiction of the ocean as a welcoming, pleasing sight. When she walks her dog to the shore and stares out at the water, she sees mermaids looking back at her. Since mermaids are mythical creatures known for their extraordinary beauty, this implies that the ocean looks especially appealing to the speaker. The fact that the mermaids gaze at her suggests that she, too, is desirable—or at least that she feels desirable at this moment, which is yet another sign that she’s undergoing some kind of sexual awakening.

      Similarly, the speaker observes large boats (called “frigates”) and feels as if the ropes hanging off their decks are reaching out to her, urging her to grab them so that she can come aboard. In these ways, the ocean seems welcoming and tempting, full of beauty and promise. This, in turn, frames the ocean in a vaguely sexualized way, implying that the speaker’s interest in the sea has to do with her desire to have a sexual experience.

      But it soon turns out that the speaker isn’t ready to welcome a full-on sexual awakening, or at least not the one she ends up having with the ocean. Indeed, when it seems as if the ocean is about to overwhelm her with its—or, rather, his—embrace, she attempts to break free by walking back to town. What this means from a metaphorical standpoint isn’t very clear; the only thing readers know for sure is that the speaker has apparently decided she doesn’t want to act on her sexual desires.

      One interpretation of this is that surrendering herself to passion feels like a frightening loss of control. Another possible interpretation is that women in 19th century society aren’t encouraged to pursue their sexual desires (a reading supported by the fact that the ocean only stops following the speaker once she reaches the town, which likely represents society’s disapproval of overt female sexuality). A third possible analysis is that the speaker actually does go through with her sexual awakening and then, after it’s over, no longer has any need for her lover.

      Because these interpretations contradict one another, though, the only thing that remains unquestionable is the speaker’s initial attraction to the ocean and, more importantly, to the possibility of a sexual awakening. What actually happens during the subsequent sexual awakening remains confusingly unclear, and this is perhaps in keeping with the speaker’s own feelings about her sexuality.

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I started Early — Took my Dog —”

    • Lines 1-2

      I started Early – Took my Dog –
      And visited the Sea –

      The poem starts out very simply, as the speaker begins to tell a story about how she left home early one morning and walked her dog to the seashore. There is nothing particularly striking about this opening, at least not in terms of the subject. Indeed, the speaker's words seem straightforward and self-evident, preparing readers for what seems like it will be a simple story about a casual morning walk to the ocean.

      However, the way that the speaker expresses herself isn't all that straightforward. As is the case in many of Emily Dickinson's poems, dashes divide clauses from one another. In this case, these dashes create a prominent caesura in the middle of the first line, as well as a strong end-stop at the ends of both the first and second lines.

      These interruptions give the poem a unique sound, making the speaker appear hesitant, unsure, or disjointed, as if what she's saying isn't quite as straightforward as it might otherwise seem. This, in turn, subtly encourages readers to pay close attention to what will follow these opening lines, as the halting rhythm makes this journey to the sea seem fraught with emotion. In this way, the speaker's unique pacing foreshadows the fact that the poem is actually about much more than an innocent, unassuming walk to the ocean!

      These first two lines also establish the poem's use of common meter. This which is a meter in which the lines alternate between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. A line written in iambic tetrameter has four iambs, or metrical feet containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). A line written in iambic trimeter, on the other hand, only contains three iambs. Here's a look at the full meter of lines 1 and 2:

      I start- | ed Early | – Took | my Dog –
      And vis- | ited | the Sea –

      This meter gives the lines a musical and satisfying sound that often recalls religious hymns. In this way, the speaker's tone in these opening lines seems lofty and important even though she's talking about the simple act of walking her dog. Consequently, readers sense yet again that there must be something more significant lurking beneath the surface of these words.

    • Lines 3-4

      The Mermaids in the Basement
      Came out to look at me –

    • Lines 5-8

      And Frigates – in the Upper Floor
      Extended Hempen Hands –
      Presuming Me to be a Mouse –
      Aground – opon the Sands –

    • Lines 9-12

      But no Man moved Me – till the Tide
      Went past my simple Shoe –
      And past my Apron – and my Belt
      And past my Boddice – too –

    • Lines 13-15

      And made as He would eat me up –
      As wholly as a Dew
      Opon a Dandelion's Sleeve –

    • Lines 16-17

      And then – I started – too –
      And He – He followed – close behind –

    • Lines 18-20

      I felt His Silver Heel
      Opon my Ancle – Then My Shoes
      Would overflow with Pearl –

    • Lines 21-24

      Until We met the Solid Town –
      No One He seemed to know –
      And bowing – with a Mighty look –
      At me – The Sea withdrew –

  • “I started Early — Took my Dog —” Symbols

    • Symbol The Dog

      The Dog

      Because the speaker's dog appears at the beginning of the poem but is never mentioned again, one could argue that the dog itself represents the speaker's loss of innocence. In the opening of the poem, the speaker goes out of her way to mention this dog, making it seem as if the entire poem will be about walking the dog along the shore. However, the importance of the dog fades from the poem as soon as the speaker gets caught up in talking about the alluring ocean. Then, when the speaker withdraws from the sexual encounter she has with the ocean, she walks back to town but never says whether or not her dog is still with her. Given that her interaction with the ocean constitutes a sexual awakening, then, the dog's apparent disappearance becomes a symbol of how the speaker's life has changed: the innocent things that mattered to her earlier that day (like dog ownership or friendly companionship) no longer seem significant.

    • Symbol The Sea

      The Sea

      The sea is clearly symbolic in the poem, and can be interpreted in a few different ways. Mostly broadly, it seems to represent desire and freedom, two things that appear to be missing from the speaker's life on land. As such, it is a place that seems foreign to the speaker, and is all the more alluring for its unfamiliarity. The speaker tries to describe the sea using more familiar language of domestic life—calling its various depths the "Basement" and "Upper Floor"—but it becomes clear soon enough that the sea is something wholly different from the "Solid Town" the speaker flees to at the end of the poem.

      Whereas the land is firm and solid, water flows unobstructed. Beautiful mermaids gaze at the speaker as if she were the strange and/or beautiful one, and even the warships on the water seem inviting. As such, the speaker is allured by the sea—and, as such, by its promise of freedom, excitement, and adventure. Perhaps, to her, it represents an escape from the boredom or social norms of her daily life.

      Of course, the sea is also connected to sexuality. The speaker personifies it as a man, and describes the rising tide as suggestively moving past her shoes, clothing, and undergarments. The speaker seems to enjoy this at first, with being devoured by the sea coming to symbolize the speaker giving in to her desires—sexual or otherwise.

      In the end, the sea is a place filled with beauty but also danger; the speaker is "moved" by its powerful embrace yet also fears being engulfed, of drowning, and retreats back to solid ground. This reflects the way that freedom and desire may be exhilarating but also scary and overwhelming.

    • Symbol The Solid Town

      The Solid Town

      If the sea in the poem represents freedom, temptation, and desire (especially sexual desire), then the "Solid Town" mentioned in line 21 effectively symbolizes the opposite: safe, regular, familiar life—and, perhaps, the norms and responsibilities the speaker faces when not wandering along the shore. The speaker's return to the town at the end of the poem is a return to a world that is more familiar to her. The adjective "Solid" suggests she feels steadier, more secure in this town than she does in the slippery water that threatens to consume her. At the same time, though, it suggests a rejection of the temptation of the water—of freedom and of sex.

      The town thus might also represent the restrictive society in which the speaker lives. Dickinson was writing in the 1800s, when women were expected to be chaste and pure. The kind of sexual desire she seems to reference throughout the poem thus would have no place in town. The water doesn't even "know" anyone in town, implying that the two have nothing in common, no connection.

  • “I started Early — Took my Dog —” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Alliteration

      Alliteration calls attention to certain words and contributes to the poem's overall musicality. This use of alliteration also interacts with the poem's meter, since it often increases the bouncy feeling that already exists because of the speaker's use of iambs, which are metrical feet that include an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM).

      This is clear in line 6, as the /h/ sound repeats twice in quick succession: "Extended Hempen Hands." In and of itself, this repetition of the /h/ sound is satisfying. Its gentle sound might urge readers to adopt the positive attitude that the speaker has toward the warships and their ropes, since she feels like these ropes are reaching out and beckoning to her in an alluring way. But this instance of alliteration also sounds appealing because it enhances the iambic bounce of the line, subtly carving out the line's last two stressed syllables ("Hempen Hands").

      Elsewhere, alliteration is even more apparent, as is the case in line 9 with the repetition of both the /m/ and /t/ sounds:

      But no Man moved Me – till the Tide

      This use of alliteration is especially noteworthy because this line is arguably the most important one in the entire poem, considering that it is the moment in which the speaker's desirous feelings for the ocean become explicitly sexual. In this way, alliteration encourages readers to slow down and spend more time with the words in this important line. What's more, the repetition of the /m/ and /t/ sounds accentuate the poem's musicality, ultimately reflecting the speaker's pleasure in the midst of her sexual awakening.

    • Anaphora

    • Assonance

    • Caesura

    • Consonance

    • Metaphor

    • Personification

    • Sibilance

    • Enjambment

  • "I started Early — Took my Dog —" Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Basement
    • Frigates
    • Upper Floor
    • Hempen Hands
    • Presuming
    • Aground
    • Opon
    • Moved
    • Apron
    • Boddice
    • Made
    • Wholly
    • Dew
    • Dandelion's Sleeve
    • Started
    • Silver Heel
    • Ancle
    • Pearl

    • The lowest level of a house, typically underground or at least partially lowered into the earth. In this context, though, the speaker uses the word to metaphorically refer to the lower depths of the ocean.

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I started Early — Took my Dog —”

    • Form

      The poem adheres to the form of a lyrical ballad. This means that it is made up of quatrains (four-line stanzas), that it is written in common meter, and that it follows a rhyme scheme in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme with one another.

      Originally, ballads were meant to be set to music, which is why they tend to have a sing-song quality that is emphasized by the use of meter and rhyme. These musical poems also often tell a story of some kind. "I started Early – Took my Dog –" adheres to this convention, as the speaker recounts her journey to the ocean, the subsequent sexual awakening that takes place on the shore, and her eventual retreat back to town.

      It's also worth noting that Dickinson was heavily influenced by religious hymns, which are similar to the ballad form, especially insofar as they are meant to be set to music. By using this form to narrate the poem, then, the speaker imbues the story of her sexual awakening with an extra sense of significance.

    • Meter

      "I started Early – Took my Dog –" is written in common meter, meaning that its lines alternate back and forth between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. This, in turn, means that the rhythm of each line is based on the rhythm of the iamb, which is a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Accordingly, a line of iambic tetrameter is made up of four iambs (four da-DUMs), whereas a line of iambic trimeter is made up of three iambs (three da-DUMs).

      To see this more clearly, consider the scansion of the first two lines:

      I star | ted Ear- | ly – Took | my Dog –
      And vis- | ited | the Sea –

      Even with the caesura that appears in the middle of the third foot ("ly – || Took"), these two lines are perfect examples of common meter.

      However, the poem doesn't always adhere to the rules of this meter. For instance, line 9 differs from the other lines of iambic tetrameter:

      But no | Man moved | Me – till | the Tide

      There are still four feet in this line (with a caesura appearing in the third), but there are five stressed syllables instead of the standard four that are normally found in lines of iambic tetrameter. Indeed, the second foot is a spondee, meaning that both syllables are stressed ("Man moved"). The fact that the words "no Man moved" all receive stresses ultimately places extra emphasis on the notion that a man has never "moved"—which is to say embraced—the speaker in the way that the ocean does. And though this use of a spondee varies from the conventions of iambic tetrameter, it is only a passing substitution that calls attention to the speaker's inexperience, not something that completely throws off the poem's use of common meter.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      Like most ballads, "I started Early – Took my Dog –" follows a rhyme scheme in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme with each other. To see this a bit more tangibly, consider the following way of mapping the poem's first two stanzas:

      ABCB DEFE

      For the majority of the poem, this rhyme scheme is very straightforward, as the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme very obviously with one another. For example, note the full, perfect rhyme between "hands" in line 6 rhymes and "sands" in line 8.

      Interestingly enough, the rhymes that appear in the third stanza also appear in the fourth stanza. In both cases, the rhyme scheme centers around the assonant /oo/ sound that appears in the words "shoe," "too," and "dew." The effect of this prolonged rhyme ties these two stanzas together, which is significant because both stanzas detail the ocean's sexual embrace of the speaker. As such, the two stanzas come together to describe a single moment that defines the rest of the poem.

      However, the last two stanzas feature slant rhymes instead of perfect rhymes, as the speaker rhymes "heel" with "pearl" in the fifth stanza and "know" with "withdrew" in the final stanza. Neither of these count as true rhymes in the traditional sense, but they both contain the traces of rhyme, thereby succeeding in upholding the rhyme scheme.

      At the same time, it's worth noting that the rhyme scheme becomes imperfect only when the speaker breaks away from her sexual encounter with the sea. This, in turn, suggests that the perfect rhymes that appear in the first four stanzas create a satisfying sound that is supposed to reflect the speaker's pleasure—a pleasure that comes to an end when her sexual interaction with the ocean concludes.

  • “I started Early — Took my Dog —” Speaker

    • Although the poem doesn't contain all that much in the way of identifying information about the speaker, most readers believe that the speaker is a woman. This is because the speaker mentions pieces of clothing—an apron and a bodice—that were strictly considered women's clothes in the 19th century, which was when the poem was written. Taking the gender dynamics of the mid to late 1800s into account, then, it's widely accepted that the speaker of "I started Early – Took my Dog –" is, in fact, a woman.

      In addition, some readers choose to view the speaker as Emily Dickinson herself. This is partly due to the fact that Dickinson owned a dog (a Newfoundland named Carlo) whom she frequently walked. Furthermore, some readers believe that this poem aligns with Dickinson's rather individualistic lifestyle, but this viewpoint superimposes meaning onto the poem that might not actually exist within the lines themselves.

      For that matter, it's rather unnecessary to try to guess whether Dickinson is the speaker, since the poem functions perfectly well—from an analytical standpoint—on its own. Suffice it to say, then, that the speaker is simply a woman living in the 19th century who walks her dog to the sea.

  • “I started Early — Took my Dog —” Setting

    • The poem takes place by the sea, as the speaker stands on shore and looks out at the water. Other than these contextual details, there is very little information to clarify the setting of the poem. The speaker eventually adds to the general scene by mentioning a nearby town, to which she flees when her encounter with the ocean becomes too intense.

      Because the poem was written in the early 1860s, it's logical to assume that it takes place around the same time, meaning that the sexual norms of 19th century society would bring surely bring themselves to bear on the speaker—a fact that is worth keeping in mind, since "I started Early – Took my Dog –" is largely about sex and, more specifically, female sexuality. The speaker also mentions an apron and bodice—two articles of clothing that were popular during the 19th century. This, in turn, makes it even more likely that the speaker does indeed live in 1800s society.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “I started Early — Took my Dog —”

    • Literary Context

      Emily Dickinson wrote feverishly in the early 1860s, producing a large portion of her entire output between the years 1861 and 1865. This is the period during which she composed this poem, which exemplifies the style that characterizes the majority of her work. Indeed, "I started Early – Took my Dog –" includes the idiosyncratic use of dashes that appears in almost all of her poetry and that set her apart from other poets writing in the mid to late 1800s.

      "I started Early – Took my Dog" also uses the ballad form that Dickinson frequently employed. Her fondness for this form can be attributed to her experience as a churchgoer, where many of the hymns were written (like much of Dickinson's poetry) in common meter. In fact, Dickinson's ballads (including "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain," "Hope is the thing with feathers," and "Success is counted sweetest" can be sung using the melodies of popular hymns like "Amazing Grace."

      Dickinson was also heavily influenced by the Romantic movement, which is another possible reason that she wrote so many ballads—after all, Romantics like Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote many lyrical ballads. In addition, Dickinson also took cues from the American Transcendentalist movement, finding influence in writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson.

      Considering her respect both for the Transcendentalists and the Romantics, then, it's no surprise that "I started Early – Took my Dog –" features a speaker who has an intimate interaction with nature, since both the Transcendentalist and the Romantic literary movements highly valued nature and its beauty.

      Historical Context

      It's worth considering that the United States was in the throes of the Civil War during Emily Dickinson's most fruitful poetic period. Despite the country's upheaval, though, her poetry remains largely uninfluenced by the war, at least in any directly observable way. Rather than writing political poems, Dickinson wrote mostly about beauty, wonder, and surprise in ordinary life, tending toward introspection instead of political commentary that would have been relevant to the Union's fight to end slavery.

      This is in keeping with the way Dickinson lived her personal life, since she mostly stayed away from the public eye. When her mother became chronically ill in the 1850s, Dickinson started spending more and more time at home, and this ultimately led to a very sequestered lifestyle in which she rarely ventured far from the family home in Amherst, Massachusetts.

      This, of course, is one of the reasons that "I started Early – Took my Dog –" is so compelling: it presents a simple walk to the beach as a momentous occasion, something that would have been true for Dickinson herself. This isolated lifestyle, though, is one of the reasons that Dickinson wrote so many poems, which she often included in letters to close acquaintances. But despite her prolific output, she only published a small handful of poems during her own lifetime, only becoming famous for her work after her death.

  • More “I started Early — Took my Dog —” Resources

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