Poem Description

The Rose did caper on her cheek,
Her bodice rose and fell,
Her Pretty speech, like drunken men,
Did stagger pitiful.

Her fingers fumbled at her work,—
Her needle would not go;
What ailed so smart a little maid
It puzzled me to know.

Till opposite I spied a cheek
That bore another rose;
Just opposite another speech
that like the drunkard goes;

A vest that, like the bodice danced
to the immortal tune,—
Till those two troubled little clocks
Ticked softly into one.
Emily Dickinson

This poem is such a great description of that awkward recognition of two people wearing their hearts on their sleeves. She has captured the nervousness, the rapid breathing, the clumsiness of first love. The talent is in the way she says it: 'The rose did caper on her cheek' not, 'She's knitting in the corner with a flushed face.'

Choices, choices, choices.

Why did she choose to end the poem that way by breaking the rhythm of the rhyme? At first I disagreed with that choice but then it made sense. The poem seemed to be on the verge of delving into the cute and then wham!! She breaks you of that voice and forces you to listen to the words instead of expecting the obvious.