Emily Dickinson

Cocoon Above! Cocoon Below!

poem 129

Cocoon Above! Cocoon Below! - meaning Summary

Transformation Revealed in Time

The poem portrays a brief, joyful metamorphosis. The speaker addresses a hidden cocoon, anticipating its emergence and mocking its secrecy. In two short stanzas the chrysalis becomes a butterfly, and the swift, wondrous change is linked to sudden insight: a moment of transformation makes the creature "wiser" and able to grasp the universe. The poem celebrates emergence, the shock of revelation, and how small intervals yield large understanding.

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Cocoon above! Cocoon below! Stealthy Cocoon, why hide you so What all the world suspect? An hour, and gay on every tree Your secret, perched in ecstasy Defies imprisonment! An hour in Chrysalis to pass, Then gay above receding grass A Butterfly to go! A moment to interrogate, Then wiser than a Surrogate, The Universe to know!

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