Because of the phallic shape of the snake, many literary critics have purported that the speaker’s fear of the snake is a symbol for Dickinson’s sexual fears. And zero at the bone. In these stanzas of ‘A Narrow Fellow in the Grass’, the speaker reveals that he knows “nature’s people”. Like the proverbial "snake in the grass," this snake is a creature of secretive, treacherous menace. Often her speaker observes herself in memory, moving through a landscape, carrying a dayload of uncertainty, … Some printed versions of the poem include dashes, and it has been suggested that this imitates the snake’s darting movements and the narrator’s rapid telling of the tale. It is almost as if the snake were approaching more rapidly. And zero at the bone. Background. He likes a boggy acre, A floor too cool for corn. The image of fleeting movement — the poet sees the snake and then loses it and then sees it again — is threaded throughout the poem. The term, “zero at the bone” she tries to describe how mesmerised she is with the flexible and swift movement of the snake, as if it does not have any bone in its body at all. The poems in Zero at the Bone, Stacie Cassarino’s highly accomplished first book, emit a sonic calm even — or especially — while teasing out the adversities in their subject matter. However “rides” suggests that the snake is being carried or floating along, making the snake seem less threatening and more passive. 1. Who or what is the Fellow in this poem? A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides; You may have met him,--did you not, His notice sudden is. Born in Hartford, Connecticut of Italian (Neapolitan/Sicilian) heritage, she is a dual citizen of the US/ Italy. It means she is cold. The imagery of a snake slithering across a “Barefoot” is particularly distressing and unsettling. Word Count: 304. Using colloquial language like “narrow Fellow” makes the snake seem must less sinister and gives the poem a lighter, more amiable tone that contrasts with the poem’s tense subject matter. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. In one variant of the poem "child," in stanza 3, reads "boy." This shift from trust to cold distrust is the poem’s central thematic turn. The word “transport” operates in two ways here. And zero at the bone. One student’s inventive suggestion is that its irregularity imitates the deceitful nature of the snake. … The word “Boy” tells us that the speaker is male and describing an experience he had in his youth. The fact that he is ‘friendly’ is humorous and ironic. One might think of expressions like, ‘fellow feeling’ and ‘hail fellow, well met’. It was just the time when the young men and girls, tired with the work and cares of the day, were in the habit of assembling for the dance. a. nature-lovers. What does Dickinson mean when she says "zero at the bone"? Notes: Note to POL students: The inclusion or omission of the numeral in the title of the poem should not affect the accuracy score. The poet observes the snake’s effortless movement and comments on its environment or, one should say, habitat — ‘a Boggy Acre’ and ‘a Floor too cool for Corn’. It has the feel of the best kinds of fairy tales–the old ones–lovely and darkly glimmering, beautiful and somehow ominous, and just familiar enough for its strangeness to feel bone-chillingly strange. Note too, that the snake is personified again with intentional capitalization of “Him,” giving the snake a less menacing, more human presence. The phrase “Zero at the Bone” describes bone-chilling horror, a zero-degree temperature. Learn more. B. snake. Zero at the bone seems to be an idiomatic expression off Emily Dickinson's poem: But never met this fellow, Attended or alone, Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone. the poet cries out, and Zero at the Bone urges this anxious question in each highly-wrought fibre of its lines. On the other hand, though snakes usually travel alone, some snakes, particularly rattlesnakes, are often spotted together around mating seasons. Stacie Cassarino’s Zero at the Bone is an emotionally devastating collection of poems examining the complexities of loss and desire. These instances of personification build up to the final thematic turn, which reveals how non-human the snake truly is. On the one hand, the speaker might be suggesting that he has never encountered a snake, whether accompanied by others or alone, that has not caused extreme anxiety. Thus the speaker admits that the cordiality she feels for “Nature’s People” is an act of projection. Emily Dickinson. 3rd and 4th stanzas actually make up one stanza. It's informal and not a set idiom as such. At this point Dickinson reveals that she is actually terrified of the snake and always has been “But never met this Fellow/Attended, or alone/Without a tighter breathing/And Zero at the Bone”. There seem to be variations in the way the poem is printed. This final quatrain shows that the snake, personified as a harmless, “narrow Fellow” in the first quatrain, is not a person at all but a threat. Read the stanza from “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass." Though Dickinson often used em dashes for various, irregular reasons, the em dash here is critical. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Stacie Cassarino (born 1975) is an American poet, literary scholar, and educator. Dickinson’s handling of end rhyme is elliptical and subtle. c. grief. It is optional during recitation. The third stanza opens with a quickening of the meter. The final line contains a multi-layered metaphor. These lines also portray the cold behaviour and wildness of the snake, which she has not witnessed in … Rate this poem: (0.00 / 0 votes) Font size: Collection Edit Submitted on May 13, 2011. Despite the fact that Dickinson welcomes nature into her life, here she exhibits an instinctively negative reaction to the snake—her blood runs cold. “Child” in 3rd stanza should be replaced with “Boy” and there are dashes throughout the entire poem which need to be included. Some versions have six stanzas of four lines each, known as quatrains. ~Emily Dickinson. Several of nature's people I know, and they know me; I feel for them a transport Of cordiality; But never met this fellow, Attended or alone, Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone. And zero at the bone. Emily Dickinson's 1865 poem "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" uses the image of an encounter with a snake to explore the nature of fear and anxiety—especially the fear of deceit. 4. And Zero at the Bone. Got it. Dickinson describes the snake’s appearance and movement in detail. The snake is a friend, a…, Through the strait pass of suffering (792), Undue Significance a starving man attaches, I many times thought Peace had come (739), Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple (228), Their Height in Heaven comforts not (696). This is one of my favorites. The poem’s great thematic shift is a move away from a metaphor-driven relationship with the natural world. The implication seemingly being a reference Zero (O° F – cold!) This final quatrain shows that the snake, personified as a harmless, “narrow Fellow” in the first quatrain, is not a person at all but a threat. In the latter case, the persona would be an invented male narrator, a man looking back on his experiences as a boy. As the poem reaches its conclusion, those attempts at familiarization fall apart. This is then shown in the last stanza by the persona not being able to meet ‘this Fellow…Without a tighter breathing And Zero at the Bone-‘. The phrase Without a tighter breathing / And zero at the bone most nearly indicates a. In the opening line, Dickinson cleverly disguises the subject of the poem, a snake. One of the hallmarks of Emily Dickinson's poetry is to draw unusual comparisons. In the poem “Givens,” Klink imagines a collective experience rather than a solitary one: “We were given a book, and the book stripped / the world down to dirt and to rain, captivity / color.” Her use of the “we,” juxtaposed with “the world,” expands the poem's focus from personal to global. Cassarino writes frankly about the body and sex. The word sounds similar to “glides” or “writhes,” which one might usually associate with snakes. Can we determine whether the "child" is a boy or a girl? In this case the slant rhyme is formed by the “rr” and “ll” consonant sounds in the respective words. There’s a change in tone and about halfway through, the snake transforms into a metaphor for deceit. This is a poem that, on one level, describes an encounter with a snake. My most recent snaky encounters were at the beach, if you don’t count the five-foot blacksnake skin festooned through our shed last week. It’s among her most famous and often-anthologised poems, so a few words of analysis may help us to get to the bottom of what the ‘narrow Fellow in the Grass’… Without a tighter breathing. The speaker of this poem is most likely. Winner of the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry, Cassarino asserts herself as a poet of great skill in this debut collection. I Songs were echoing in the village street. This movement is untraceable, meaning that his appearances are even more shocking. The speaker, who loves all creatures, cannot love the treacherous trickster, the snake in the grass, the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The image of the comb continues the poem’s titular metaphor: the snake as a “fellow.” Dickinson engages in this type of personification throughout the poem, adding additional touches to the snake’s identity as a person. The structure of this poem is very different just like the poem. Dickinson’s imagery here thus makes the snake seem even more sly and menacing. The phrase Nature's People means. e. an adult woman. Written in 1831. Attended, or alone. However, this is open to interpretation. But never met this fellow, Attended or alone, Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone. In a bone-chilling account of kidnapping, murder and the dogged pursuit of a child’s killers, John Heidenry crafts a haunting narrative that involves mob boss Joe Costello, a cast of unsavory grifters, hardboiled detectives and a room at the legendary, but now razed, Coral Court Motel on Route 66. This is a poem that, on one level, describes an encounter with a snake. The snake becomes sinister in the last stanza, when we learn the poet’s breathing is ‘tighter’ — in other words, he is gripped with fear. It also suggests a state of personal annihilation, of becoming nothing. Throughout the poem, the speaker attempts to make sense of the snake by personification and comparison. Her tone modulates between intimate remark and a flatness called out by the weight of the scene. The speaker directly addresses the reader here, and the dialogue seems formal, but nonchalant. As readers, we might react with horror to snake but we are probably comfortable with a narrow Fellow. 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