Poor little Heart — Floating-Heart

This poem describes a plant called heart-leaf, or floating-heart. The last stanza shows Dickinson's intention. As the only one (like a floating-heart) who cared about her poems, she arrayed them with twisting and bright words.

Poor little Heart! ¹
Did they forget thee?
Then dinna care! Then dinna care!

Proud little Heart! ⁴
Did they forsake thee?
Be debonnaire! Be debonnaire!

Frail little Heart! ⁷
I would not break thee－
Could'st credit me? Could'st credit me?

Gay little Heart－¹⁰
Like Morning Glory!
Wind and Sun－wilt thee array!

(F.214/J.192)

[1] Heart:: a plant, can be heart-leaf, heart-clover, heart-cherry, etc.
[2] forget:: heart-leaf is also called floating-heart, hinted by forsake in line five.
[3] dinna:: do not _(OED).
[4] Proud:: indicating its long and straight stem.
[5] forsake:: a hint on floating-heart.
[6] debonnaire:: debonair, pleasant and affable in outward manner or address _(OED).
[7, 8] Frail, break:: indicating its fragile stem.
[9] credit me:: a hint that the floating-heart belonged to Dickinson herself, her heart of poetry.
[10] Gay:: excited with merriment as one's floating heart being credited.
[11] Morning Glory:: the flower; glory for a new style of poetry.
[12] array:: to adorn, deck, set off _{(OED 10b)}; to adorn her poems by twisting (wind) and splendorous (sun) words.

(Limnanthemum) Floating-Heart. Leaves simple, alternate or all from the root, round-heart-shaped, floating on the water, with very long footstalks, which bear near their summit a cluster of small white flowers, along with some spur-shaped bodies. Corolla 6-parted, the lobes folded inwards in the bud——Botany for Young People and Common Schools (1859)

As the anchor holdeth the ship in a tempest, so doth hope keep the mind . . . it strengthens and quiets the floating heart of man.——One Hundred and Ninety Sermons (1845)