I Think The Hemlock Likes To Stand by Emily Dickinson

I am following the convention used by Robert Bly, and using the first line as the title. The poem has no title. Some people call it "The Hemlock," and some people call it "81," its number in the Complete Poems.



No, the hemlock tree has nothing to do with the poisonous herb used to kill Socrates. Hemlock trees can be found in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, as the poem itself tells us.

When I was a child (maybe a teenager), I recall Falstaff beer having a jingle going "Falstaff! The thir----st slaker!" So to slake something means to quench a thirst for something. I'm much more familiar with "cloy" as an intransitive verb meaning "to become unpleasant," from my participation in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. But cloy in this context is used transitively, meaning "to end by satisfying"

I hereby confess to you that on further review, I don't like the last verse of this poem, because it has nothing to do with the first three verses. But I like the first three verses enough to share this poem with you. Yesterday, it was both bitterly cold and snowing in St. Paul, Minnesota, which is comforting, as January has been unseasonably warm. This is a poem about life forms that are well-suited to bitter cold.


I THINK the hemlock likes to stand
Upon a marge of snow;
It suits his own austerity,
And satisfies an awe

That men must slake in wilderness,
Or in the desert cloy,—
An instinct for the hoar, the bald,
Lapland’s necessity.

The hemlock’s nature thrives on cold;
The gnash of northern winds
Is sweetest nutriment to him,
His best Norwegian wines.

To satin races he is nought;
But children on the Don
Beneath his tabernacles play,
And Dnieper wrestlers run.


I Think The Hemlock Likes To Stand - Emily Dickenson by douglasbass

This poem can be found in "The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson"