Essay
Analysing 'A narrow Fellow in the Grass'
Analysing 'A narrow Fellow in the Grass' by Emily Dickinson, an A grade exam style answer.
[Show more]
Content preview
‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass’Explore how Emily Dickinson presents attitudes and feelings about nature in ‘A narrow Fellow in the
Grass’ and make connections with one or two other poems from your collection.
You should consider Dickinson’s use of poetic and stylistic techniques and significant literary or other
relevant contexts.
In this poem Dickinson describes a snake. The poem starts in a light, familiar tone, but ends with an
admission of paralysing fear, contradicting a common idea in nature poetry that the natural world
is always positive source of rejuvenation or inspiration.
In the opening two stanzas a light tone is established through the use of ballad metre and the term
of reference, ‘narrow Fellow’, which personifies the snake and implies that it is a familiar friend.
The reader is addressed through the pronoun ‘You’, creating a conversational style. The qualities of
the snake are presented using sound and visual imagery. Sibilance is used in the line ‘His notice
sudden is’. The soft ‘c’ merging into the ‘s’ creates a prolongs hiss that imitates onomatopoeically
the sound of the snake. This sound effect is quickly followed by a visual image, exploring its
elusiveness. There are no terms of reference for the snake itself when it is first described in the
second stanza. Rather, its surroundings are the subject of an intransitive verb, ‘The Grass divides’,
as if it is detectable only through the movement around it. When it is seen, only part of it is glimpsed
in a concrete noun phrase with the use of more sibilance: ‘a spotted shaft...it closes...and opens
further on’. The parallel structure and contrasting pair of verbs, ‘opens...closes’. Recreate the coiling
and uncoiling movement of a snake. The shift in pronouns, from ‘Him’ to ‘it’, reinforces that it is only
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller stu123. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for £5.49. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
64438 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy revision notes and other study material for 14 years now