Experiment to me 1
Is every one I meet
If it contain a Kernel?
The Figure of a Nut
Presents upon a Tree 5
Equally plausibly,
But Meat within, is requisite
To Squirrels, and to Me.
Is every one I meet
If it contain a Kernel?
The Figure of a Nut
Presents upon a Tree 5
Equally plausibly,
But Meat within, is requisite
To Squirrels, and to Me.
(F.1081/J.1073)
[1] Experiment:: a test of riddle poems. me:: Emily Dickinson.
[2] every one:: every object, insect, bird, etc. can be her subject.
[3] Kernel:: a riddle to be solved in future like a seed.
[4] Nut:: a problem hard to solve (OED n.1 4); a hard riddle.
[5] Tree:: a structure in branched form.
[6] Equally plausibly:: every branch (that leads to the answer) looks plausible.
[7] Meat:: essence, valid content.
[8] Squirrels:: squirrel-like people who seek always and everywhere.
The very habit of leaping, in this squirrel-like style, from one part of a subject to another, must counteract, in the most dangerous way, that highly important aim of the tutor to which we have just alluded; ─ The Monthly Review By Ralph Griffiths (1815)
I, swinging, squirrel-like, from scheme to schema; no matter if one breaks, another is at hand! ─ Alice, or The Mysteries (1848)
