"A narrow Fellow in the Grass" is a poem by Emily Dickinson written in 1865 and first published in 1866. It is one of the few poems that was published, anonymously, in Dickinson's lifetime by a contemporary literary magazine. Born in 1830, Dickinson was an American poet known for living very reclusively. Only a fraction of her large body of work was published while she was alive. Her particular style did not match many of the poetic conventions of the time. She died in 1886, and the first (highly successful) publication of a collection of her poems followed four years later. This major rediscovery was the result of her family and friends unearthing an extensive collection of her writings. Dickinson’s poetry is often characterized by unusual capitalization and punctuation.
"A narrow Fellow in the Grass" depicts a snake, reflecting Dickinson’s sustained interest in flora and fauna. The actual name of the animal is never explicitly stated, however, readers can easily identify it as a snake because of Dickinson's incisive observations and vivid imagery. This evasion suits the poem well, given that its titular figure is being described as stealthy. The text begins as a more general look at the snake and eventually shifts into a remembrance of an encounter the speaker had with it. The piece is colored by the speaker's fearful respect for the snake's almost mystical ability to vanish. The poem is written in blank verse, with no standardized rhyme scheme. As mentioned earlier, this poem makes use of dashes and unconventional capitalization, which meaningfully imbues the poem with a central unease. Even though the poem is essentially about children being frightened by a snake in tall grass, Dickinson successfully heightens the drama of the encounter. She raises the stakes by connecting this specific instance with a general perception of nature's frightening power.
