I'll
send the feather from my Hat!
Who
knows – but at the sight of that
My
Sovereign will relent?
As
trinket – worn by faded Child –
Confronting
eyes long – comforted –
Blisters
the Adamant!
-
F196 (1861) 687
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Ostrich feathers were the rage |
This
is a classic and light-hearted love poem. However, considering Dickinson sent
it to Samuel Bowles, presumably along with a feather, it was intended as a mild
flirtation since Bowles was married. Surely, the poet asks, my precious feather
will have the same effect on “My Sovereign” object of affection as receiving a trinket
once worn by a now dead (“faded”) child would have on its parents. It should,
she hopes, blister even his stony (“Adamant”) heart. I like the word “Blisters”
here. The image of a feather blistering a stony surface is a droll one.
There’s
a bit of sound play between “Confronting” and “comforted.” The trinket and
feather will confront a person who has finally become comfortable about the
absence of the child or would-be lover. This state of acceptance is about to be
blistered!
The
poem is written in two 3-line parts: each has two lines of iambic tetrameter
followed by one of iambic trimeter. The rhyming last words of the two sections,
“relent” and “Adament,” tie the
poem together.
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