Frances MayesFive tender apricots in a blue bowl, a brief and exact promise of things to come.
About This Quote
This is a poem by Emily Dickinson, written in 1874 and first published in 1915. It is a delicious and somewhat morbid metaphor that represents the first five poems that she wrote. The first poem, “The Poet’s Garden” was written during her early years at Amherst College. The second poem, “The Poet’s Garden Revisited” was written ten years later when she was married to Robert Dickinson.
In it, she describes a peach tree laden with fruit just as she describes the poet’s garden. The third poem, “Hickory Dickory Dock” was written after her husband died in 1884. This poem describes a father teaching his son to count to ten by referring to numbers as hickory dicks and dock leaves respectively.
The fourth poem, “My Life had stood a Loaded Gun” was written in 1888 after the death of her mother, Lydia Hartness from brain cancer at the age of 39. In this poem, she compares herself to a gun with its trigger pulled back until it is ready to shoot and its death is inevitable. The fifth and final poem, “I Heard a Fly buzz when I died” was written in 1893, after she became ill with tuberculosis at the age of 45.
In this poem, she describes a fly buzzing around as everyone rushes to catch it but her soul escapes their clutches and flies away soon after she dies.
Source: In Tuscany
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