Apparently with no surprise

Apparently with no surprise
To any happy Flower
The Frost beheads it at it’s play –
In accidental power –
The blonde Assassin passes on –
The Sun proceeds unmoved
To measure off another Day
For an Approving God –
                                  1668 (1884)

This poem is a great example of why many people don’t take Emily Dickinson seriously as a “nature poet.” Many argue that she only uses nature as a supporting theme in order to address another topic. Here we see her describe how frost can kill flowers and how this natural occurrence is emblematic of her views on religion. However, I think that for Dickinson, the topics of nature and religion are so closely knit that they cannot be separated. She is a true “nature poet” because she often aims to show nature not only as an inspiring and beautiful thing, but also as a powerful force that is beyond humanity.

Although Dickinson uses nature in this poem to address her views on God, she still allows the natural experience to stand on its own. She contrasts the “happy Flower” with the playfully powerful Frost that simply moves on after it kills. The imagery of the flower being something that cannot move from where it grows compared to the frost that just carries on, shows Dickinson acknowledging both the brutality of nature, and its simplistic beauty.

Flowers dying in a frost

Dickinson uses two sets of full rhymes in the poem to show the contrast between the power that the Frost holds compared to the flower, and between the indifferent passing of time and the idea that the Frost is playing. The frost has this power to kill that obviously the flower does not posses and cannot do anything to avoid. It simply thinks that it’s playing, and that it means nothing, yet to the flower it means everything. The rhyme emphasizes that on a larger scale, it really doesn’t mean anything because they days simply pass by as God oversees this indifferent killing.

Usually Dickinson’s poems have a full line break to separate her four-line stanzas. However, here we see her alter her normal form and opt for one longer eight-line stanza instead. In doing this, she creates that feeling of the “unmoved” passing of time that doesn’t care about the loss of a flower. Just as the “Sun proceeds,” so does the poem continue on without a second thought (stanza break) for this flower’s death. Another unusual change of form that Dickinson uses in this poem is perfect hymn meter. She tends to change the meter from the standard 4-3-4-3 to fit her poem’s theme. But in this poem, she strictly adheres to the meter and it upholds the idea that despite the possible loss of life, there is an order to nature.