Nature the Gentlest Mother Is
Nature the Gentlest Mother Is - meaning Summary
Maternal Care of Nature
Dickinson portrays Nature as a gentle, maternal force that cares for every creature, from wayward squirrels and impetuous birds to the smallest cricket and flower. The poem emphasizes tenderness coupled with quiet authority: Nature admonishes mildly, oversees daily life, and finally restores order at day's end by kindling lamps and commanding silence. Its tone blends intimacy and vastness—an "infinite affection" and "infinite care"—suggesting a universe where even the least worthy receive protection and consolation under a watchful, patient stewardship.
Read Complete AnalysesNature the gentlest mother is, Impatient of no child, The feeblest of the waywardest. Her admonition mild In forest and the hill By traveller be heard, Restraining rampant squirrel Or too impetuous bird. How fair her conversation A summer afternoon, Her household her assembly; And when the sun go down, Her voice among the aisles Incite the timid prayer Of the minutest cricket, The most unworthy flower. When all the children sleep, She turns as long away As will suffice tolight her lamps, Then bending from the sky With infinite affection An infiniter care, Her golden finger on her lip, Wills silence everywhere.
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