"I started Early--Took my Dog--"

[alexar]

I've always thought this poem was about a great passion; a man that moved her, especially the stanza:

But no Man moved Me—till the Tide
Went past my simple Shoe—
And past my Apron—and my Belt
And past my Bodice—too—

And that she is, perhaps, using the sea to symbolise him...perhaps some sexual desire? It seems to me a sensual poem, even if there's some of her usual, charcateristic, playful imagery (Mouse!).

It was good to see all these readings. Dickinson's poetry is nothing if not ambiguous, so it can't be right to deny the presence of a reading that can be seen to work. On the other hand we all have our preferences, and I am with Sumaya in enjoying this stanza as breathlessly representative of being overwhelmed by uncontrollable physical love. But chacun a son gout.

I know it quite well because it attracted my attention when I first read it. It reminds me of Christina Rossetti's 'Goblin Market', another poem about a similar loss of control over the physical (possibly).