Do you know which animal or creature Emily Dickinson wrote about most often?
I searched the online Emily Dickinson Archive to see what I could find out, and the results are below. Take a guess before you scroll down to see what I found.
Which animal do you think appeared most often in Dickinson's poems? Dog or cat? Bird or bat? Hmm. What about the frog or gnat?
I searched the online Emily Dickinson Archive to see what I could find out, and the results are below. Take a guess before you scroll down to see what I found.
Which animal do you think appeared most often in Dickinson's poems? Dog or cat? Bird or bat? Hmm. What about the frog or gnat?
I collected data on many creatures -- from bat to wren -- but I'm not 100% sure my list is comprehensive. If you think I've missed some bug or beast, let me know. However, check the archive first -- HERE -- because I did check for many other creatures in the animal kingdom, but they came up with zero entries. For example, animals like "sheep," "goat," and "goose" (as well as "geese") all came up with "0 results."
Some of Dickinson's poems are ABOUT creatures -- but they don't name them. For example, an 1891 edition of Dickinson's poetry included the title "The Humming-Bird" for her poem "A Route of Evanescence" (below on the left), and an 1896 edition gave the title "The Woodpecker" to her poem "His Bill an Auger is" (below on the right). However, neither poem included the names of the birds.
Some of Dickinson's poems are ABOUT creatures -- but they don't name them. For example, an 1891 edition of Dickinson's poetry included the title "The Humming-Bird" for her poem "A Route of Evanescence" (below on the left), and an 1896 edition gave the title "The Woodpecker" to her poem "His Bill an Auger is" (below on the right). However, neither poem included the names of the birds.
| By Emily Dickinson: A Route of Evanescence With a revolving Wheel – A Resonance of Emerald – A Rush of Cochineal – And every Blossom on the Bush Adjusts its tumbled Head – The mail from Tunis, probably, An easy Morning's Ride – | By Emily Dickinson: His Bill an Auger is His Head, a Cap and Frill He laboreth at every Tree A Worm, His utmost Goal. |
Before I share the results on how often individual creatures are named, I will say that Emily did, indeed, prefer the word "creature" over "animal" or "beast." She used the word "creature" in 35 different poems, but she only used the word "beast" in two poems and the word "animal" in one. She never used the word "bug," but she did use "insect" in two poems. She used the word "fish" in one poem.
The chart below shows the number of poems in which the labeled creatures appear.
However, it shows the names of creatures that appeared in 5 or more poems. Those that appeared in four or fewer poems are the following:
The chart below shows the number of poems in which the labeled creatures appear.
However, it shows the names of creatures that appeared in 5 or more poems. Those that appeared in four or fewer poems are the following:
| ONE POEM: Bat Blackbird Fish Hare Mole Monad Peacock Stag Tortoise Turtle | TWO POEMS: Cardinal Caterpillar Cow Deer Dove Eagle Elephant Fox Insect Owl Tiger Vulture Wolf Wren | THREE POEMS: Beetle Humming Bird Leopard Swan FOUR POEMS: Cat Frog Oriole Rat |
Here are the creatures that were named in five or more poems:
| FIVE POEMS: Gnat Lart SIX POEMS: Crow Snake Spider SEVEN POEMS: Hound Sparrow EIGHT POEMS: Dog Horse Jay Mouse | TEN POEMS: Fly* TWELVE POEMS: Worm THIRTEEN POEMS: Bobolink FIFTEEN POEMS: Squirrel THIRTY-ONE POEMS: Robin | FORTY-FOUR POEMS: Butterfly FORTY-FIVE POEMS: Bear And the grand prize definitely goes to the "birds" and the "bees": 110 POEMS: Bee 148 POEMS: Bird |
* The word "fly" (or some form of the word "fly") appeared in 36 poems; however, Dickinson used the term as the insect in only 10 of those poems.
** The word "bird" appeared in 151 poems. However, in three of the poems, Dickinson preceded it with the word "Humming" so I separated those out.
Below is the list of creatures presented in alphabetical order.
| Bat: 1 Bear: 45 Bee: 110 Beetle: 3 Bird: 148 Blackbird: 1 Bobolink: 13 Butterfly: 44 Cardinal: 2 Cat: 4 Caterpillar: 2 Cow: 2 Cricket: 12 Crow: 6 Deer: 2 Dog: 8 Dove: 2 Eagle: 2 | Elephant: 2 Fish: 1 Fly: 10 Fox: 2 Frog: 4 Gnat: 5 Hare: 1 Horse: 8 Hound: 7 Humming Bird: 3 Insect: 2 Jay: 8 Lark: 5 Leopard: 3 Mole: 1 Monad: 1 Mouse: 8 Oriole: 4 | Owl: 2 Peacock: 1 Rat: 4 Robin: 31 Snake: 6 Sparrow: 7 Spider: 6 Squirrel: 15 Stag: 1 Swan: 3 Tiger: 2 Tortoise: 1 Turtle: 1 Vulture: 2 Wolf: 2 Worm: 12 Wren: 2 |
For more statistics on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, click HERE.
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