Consulting summer's clock — Dandelion

Dandelion is also called clock from the game "what o'clock it is" by seeing how many puffs we need to blow all seeds away. Dickinson wasn't good at that, so she shook (and shocked) the dandelion and avoided to see the truth.

Consulting summer's clock,1
But half the hours remain.
I ascertain it with a shock－
I shall not look again.
The second half of joy 5
Is shorter than the first.
The truth I do not dare to know
I muffle with a jest.
(F.1750/J.1715)
[1] Consulting, clock:: playing the game "what o'clock it is" with dandelion. clock:: a trivial name for the pappus of the dandelion or similar composite flower (OED 8).
[2] half, remain:: Dickinson can only blow half of the feathered seeds.
[3] ascertain, shock:: she was surprised and tried to shock the seeds away.
[5] second half of joy:: the first half of the seeds were easier to blow away.
[7] truth:: the o'clock and the truth that she failed to finish this game.
[8] muffle:: she avoided the truth.

Dandelion. Children blow off the feathery seeds and ask: "How old shall I be ?" As often as they blow before the last are blown off, so many years will they live. The girls ask on the same occasion: "Does he love me ? Yes—a little—much—no." The word that is uttered when the last seeds fly off is the sentiment which they imagine to be in the breast of their lover. The same operation is performed with the dandelion, in order to know what o'clock it is. ─ Northern Mythology, Vol. 3 (1852)

Tom. Dandelion clocks!—pray what are they?
Mr. W. Why, there are some young gentlemen, and a few young ladies, who are so very anxious to know what o'clock it is, when they walk, that they have invented clocks. One little flower goes to bed at one, and another shuts up its petals at three, and so on; but, by far the best clock is made by blowing the downy seed of the dandelion.
Kenneth. I saw Ella and Amelia, yesterday, blowing one.
Mr. W. Ay, and so did I; and, considering that they had to blow ten times, before the last seed flew off, when it was only three by the sun, you must all agree, with me, that such clocks must be very useful to young ladies.
Ella. Father! father! you are laughing at us. ─ Breakfast-Table Science (1840)