She slept beneath a tree — Summary

Emily DickinsonContemplative

She slept beneath a tree -- Remembered but by me. I touched her Cradle mute -- She recognized the foot -- Put on her carmine suit And see!

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

In just a few gentle strokes, the poem gives us a private, almost dreamlike encounter. Someone—a woman, maybe a child—lies asleep under a tree, and only the speaker remembers her. The isolation of that "Remembered but by me" feels tender and a little lonely, as if this is a hidden bond no one else shares. When the speaker quietly touches her cradle, the whole scene shifts: the sleeper seems to sense the presence, recognizes a footstep or a familiar visitor, and then puts on a "carmine suit"—a vivid, red garment that suggests life, warmth, perhaps even the flush of awakening. The final "And see!" feels like a sudden opening, as if she has transformed or come fully alive in response to being remembered. The mood is hushed and intimate, mixing affection with a faint eerie wonder, like catching a glimpse of a spirit only one person is meant to see.

More by Emily Dickinson

All poems
AnxiousEmily Dickinson

A Pit -- but Heaven over it --

A Pit -- but Heaven over it -- And Heaven beside, and Heaven abroad, And yet a Pit -- With Heaven over it.
ContemplativeEmily Dickinson

Nature -- the Gentlest Mother is,

Nature -- the Gentlest Mother is, Impatient of no Child -- The feeblest -- or the waywardest -- Her Admonition mild --
ContemplativeEmily Dickinson

The Winters are so short

The Winters are so short -- I'm hardly justified In sending all the Birds away -- And moving into Pod --