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-by Emily Dickinson

I dreaded that first Robin, so,

But He is mastered, now,

I'm accustomed to Him grown,

He hurts a little, though --

I thought If I could only live

Till that first Shout got by --

Not all Pianos in the Woods

Had power to mangle me --

I dared not meet the Daffodils --

For fear their Yellow Gown

Would pierce me with a fashion

So foreign to my own --

I wished the Grass would hurry --

So -- when 'twas time to see --

He'd be too tall, the tallest one

Could stretch -- to look at me --

I could not bear the Bees should come,

I wished they'd stay away

In those dim countries where they go,

What word had they, for me?

They're here, though; not a creature failed --

No Blossom stayed away

In gentle deference to me --

The Queen of Calvary --

Each one salutes me, as he goes,

And I, my childish Plumes,

Lift, in bereaved acknowledgment

Of their unthinking Drums --

When I read this poem for the first time, it was so hard that I couldn't understand most of it(and I still don't), but after reading it over and over again, I could understand more about what Dickinson was trying to say. The speaker in this poem is afraid of Spring; in a more broad way of changes. She says that she does not dare to meet daffodils and that she doesn't want the bees to come near her. The speaker doesn't want any new things to happen to her and she wants to run away from it. However, she says in the sixth stanza that even though she rejected changes, they all came to her anyways disregarding of her fears. So in conclusion, I think the poem is saying that changes will come to us even though we may not welcome it.

I think the speaker of this poem is Emily Dickinson herself. I don't know about her feelings and thoughts when she was writing this, but I think that she must have been going through changes that she doesn't want to happen.