A narrow Fellow in the Grass Essay Questions

Compare and contrast the speaker and the "narrow fellow."

The "narrow fellow" easily slithers through a “Boggy Acre.” Comparatively, the speaker failed in his endeavor to grasp the "narrow fellow." The difference between the two implies that their relationship with nature is dissimilar. The "narrow fellow" is able to navigate the natural sphere with grace, where the speaker is uncomfortable and afraid. In seeking a concrete understanding of the snake, the speaker only finds himself more confused by its green world.

Why does Dickinson place the speaker's memory of his early meetings with the snake in the past?

Dickinson puts the speaker's unsettling encounters in his youth because it heightens a perception of him as vulnerable. A barefoot young boy wandering through a field at noon is much more susceptible to harm than a fully dressed man. This timeline also allows Dickinson to show that even with time, the speaker's perspective on the matter has remained firmly unchanged. She is able to reveal to the reader how this memory became fixed in the speaker's mind, concretely frightening.