I want it pleaded All its life — One Shoe

A last is a wooden block for making shoes. At last it breaks, but itself has never owned a shoe. This poem is about its eternal wish. What Dickinson really tried to say here is another riddle, possibly a Christian who works for Eternity all his life but never has one.

"I want"－it pleaded－All its life－¹
I want－was chief it said
When Skill entreated it－the last－
And when so newly dead－

I could not deem it late－to hear ⁵
That single－steadfast sigh－
The lips had placed as with a "Please"
Toward Eternity－

(F.851/J.731)

[1] "I want":: a last wants a shoe of its own.
[3] last:: a wooden block shaped like the human foot to make shoes.
[4] newly dead:: just broken.
[7] lips:: a cleft in the last's top. Please:: the shape of the last looks like a letter P.
[8] Eternity:: the last is never fixed.