Defrauded I a Butterfly -- — Summary

Two lines, and Emily Dickinson creates a tiny drama of theft and devotion. The speaker admits to robbing a butterfly of its rightful inheritance—perhaps nectar from a flower—and handing it to someone else. The butterfly is the “lawful Heir,” which turns the act into a small crime against nature’s order. There’s something playful, too, in the way the speaker elevates a butterfly to an heir—a legal term—as if the theft mattered. The tone mixes guilt with secret intimacy. “Defrauded” carries a sting of wrongdoing, but the dash before “for Thee” makes the confession sound like a whispered offering. The mood is hushed and conspiratorial, as if the speaker is sharing a guilty secret with a lover. Love, the lines suggest, can make us willing to cheat even the most innocent.