Within my reach! 1
I could have touched!
I might have chanced that way!
Soft sauntered thro' the village－
Sauntered as soft away!
So unsuspected Violets 6
Within the meadows go－
Too late for striving fingers
That passed, an hour ago!
I could have touched!
I might have chanced that way!
Soft sauntered thro' the village－
Sauntered as soft away!
So unsuspected Violets 6
Within the meadows go－
Too late for striving fingers
That passed, an hour ago!
(F.69/J.90)
[3, 4] chanced, sauntered:: a hint on butterfly, giddy or frivolous.
[3] chanced that way:: Dickinson might have met those butterflies if she went that way.
[6] Violets:: violet-tips, butterflies with violet tipped wings.
[8] fingers:: a hint on tips.
[9] passed, an hour ago:: someone told Dickinson that butterflies had passed the village an hour ago.
The dayfliers have not yet retired, for here is that wide-spread species, the Violet-tip Butterfly (Grapta C. aureum), slaking its thirst at the edge of the brook. ─ The Home Friend (1855)