Emily Dickinson

Further in Summer Than the Birds

poem 1068

Further in Summer Than the Birds - meaning Summary

Private Summer Observance

The poem observes a subtle, almost religious life in summer grasses that most people ignore. Small blooms are cast as a "minor Nation" holding an unobtrusive mass, their quiet ritual lending the landscape a pensive, solitary tone. At midday in late August this modest ceremony feels antiquated and spectral, a kind of natural canticle that reframes heat and stillness as sacred. The poem suggests that unnoticed, collective natural acts can both deepen human loneliness and enlarge the sense of nature’s mystery and ceremonial presence.

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Further in Summer than the Birds Pathetic from the Grass A minor Nation celebrates Its unobtrusive Mass. No Ordinance be seen So gradual the Grace A pensive Custom it becomes Enlarging Loneliness. Antiquest felt at Noon When August burning low Arise this spectral Canticle Repose to typify Remit as yet no Grace No Furrow on the Glow Yet a Druidic Difference Enhances Nature now

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