With the opening line of this stanza, the reader does not know who this narrow fellow is, but because Dickinson describes him as a ‘fellow’ one can only assume that this is a skinny man lying in the grass. She claims that he ‘occasionally rides’ but implies that he spends most of his time in the grass. The speaker does not go into detail about what the snake ‘rides’, but this description does give the reader the impression that she is speaking about a thin human being. The speaker claims that ‘his notice is sudden’ suggesting that one notices him suddenly, and that he suddenly notices the presence of another. Then, when the speaker describes this narrow fellow as one who ‘dives as with a comb’ and has ‘a spotted shaft’, the reader becomes aware that the speaker is not referring to a human being, but to a snake. With the first few lines, the speaker intended to trick the reader into picturing a human being, so that it comes as a shock when the reader realizes that this poem is about a snake. Then the speaker says that the snake ‘closes at your feet’. The use of the word ‘your’ here, brings the reader into this experience. Now the reader can picture a snake at his own feet, and can perhaps feel what the speaker herself has felt at this encounter with a snake. Once the snake has circled ‘your’ feet, he slithers away.

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3 years ago