Emily Dickinson’s “Nature – the Gentlest Mother is”

Emily Dickinson’s “Nature – the Gentlest Mother is”

In a unique mystical voice, Emily Dickinson’s speaker is dramatizing a number of the many ways in which Mother Nature takes care of her children. Dickinson’s keep observation and knowledge of science allowed her the ability to skillfully create her little dramas about her surroundings.

Introduction with Text of “Nature – the Gentlest Mother is”

Emily Dickinson’s love of nature was deep and abiding. Along with her intense study of and research in the sciences, she observed her surroundings keenly and those activities bestowed on her the ability to render into art her amazingly beautiful and accurate statements regarding how nature functions.

Dickinson discovered the careful nurturing as well as the softly discipling forces of nature, and she observed those qualities in both the animal and plant kingdoms. Those natural qualities motivated a deep affection for the workings of all of God’s creation.

This poem contrasts greatly with her riddle-poems, for it states explicitly the target of her observation—nature. After he clear statement of focus, she demonstrates how keen were her powers of observation and then how skillful she was in transforming those observations into art.

Nature – the Gentlest Mother is

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

In Forest – and the Hill –
By Traveller – be heard –
Restraining Rampant Squirrel –
Or too impetuous Bird –

How fair Her Conversation –
A Summer Afternoon –
Her Household – Her Assembly –
And when the Sun go down –

Her Voice among the Aisles
Incite the timid prayer
Of the minutest Cricket –
The most unworthy Flower –

When all the Children sleep –
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light Her lamps –
Then bending from the Sky –

With infinite Affection –
And infiniter Care –
Her Golden finger on Her lip –
Wills Silence – Everywhere –

Commentary on “Nature – the Gentlest Mother is”

Emily Dickinson’s speaker is employing her unique mystical voice as she dramatizes a catalogue of the myriad ways in which Mother Nature nurtures the beings under her care. She has determined that the Mother that mothers nature uses the softest touch, thus earning the title of “Gentlest Mother.”

First Stanza: The Mothering from Mother Nature

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

The speaker in Emily Dickinson’s “Nature – the Gentlest Mother is“ assigns to Mother Nature the superb quality of “Gentlest Mother.”

The speaker is also reporting to her audience that this gentlest of mothers has abundant patience in dealing with her charges.

Mother Nature, this gentlest mother, guides in an even tempered way those who are the weakest. And she addresses and corrects in a “mild” manner those who are the most recalcitrant.

Second Stanza: Disciplining Methods

In Forest – and the Hill –
By Traveller – be heard –
Restraining Rampant Squirrel –
Or too impetuous Bird

As Mother Nature’s human progeny moves over the hills and go riding through the woodlands, they are apt to hear that Gentlest Mother as she restrains an excited “Squirrel,” or as she tones down a very tempestuous bird.

The speaker expresses the natural behavior of animals in terms of the disciplining methods used by the “Gentlest Mother.”

Animal behavior quite often requires that a higher force guide them in their impetuousness. And thus the gentlest mother deals with them as they require. In her tenderness, they are permitted to flourish and to grow. In their life span, they remain in the embrace of the mother’s caring, tender arms.

Third Stanza: Measured Ways

How fair Her Conversation –
A Summer Afternoon –
Her Household – Her Assembly –
And when the Sun go down –

The speaker observes that this gentlest mother’s discussions with her charges always remains completely balanced.

The speaker relates how on a beautifully peaceful summer afternoon this perfect mother maintained her “Household,” while gathering together all the fine qualities of her very being, and those of her little family.

The speaker then commences her next idea in this stanza but leaves it conclusion in the fourth stanza. The skillful placement of this statement permits the action taken in “And when the Sun do down” to become finalized; then, she moves on the remainder of the thought.

Fourth Stanza: Bringing Forth Prayer

Her Voice among the Aisles
Incite the timid prayer
Of the minutest Cricket –
The most unworthy Flower –

The speaker places this gentlest Mother “among the Aisles” from where she can bring forth from the attendees their “timid prayer.”

In an earlier poem, the poet has reported that her “church” remains where the creatures of nature abide; they luckily appear nearby her home which serves her as her cloister:

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome

Therefore, in this fourth stanza of “Nature – the Gentlest Mother is,” her speaker can assert that this gentlest Mother may be found bringing forth a prayer from the smallest “Cricket” and “The most unworthy Flower.”

Naturally, the human notion of “unworthy” cannot be not applied to the evaluation by this gentlest mother, because she accepts all prayers equally. She applies the same level of justice to all of her children.

Fifth Stanza: Dousing the Lights for Sleep

When all the Children sleep –
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light Her lamps –
Then bending from the Sky –

As the day progresses to its end—”when all the Children sleep”—this gentlest mother quietly moves to put one her lamps. And of course those lamps are the moon and stars.

Here again in this stanza, the speaker begins an idea, but then again puts off its conclusion to the next stanza.

The speaker has begun the thought of the mother “bending” from her perch in the heavens. She thus travels very far to light her lamps, and then she must return to her children.

Sixth Stanza: Hushing for Slumber

With infinite Affection –
And infiniter Care –
Her Golden finger on Her lip –
Wills Silence – Everywhere –

It is with great affection and tender care that this gentlest mother moves her “Golden finger” to her lips, signaling for “silence.” Night is now embracing her children who are spread far and wide.

The mother now calls for silence so that her charges may peacefully slumber. The mother bestows on them a great stillness that is night time, so that they may rest from the day’s activities. And so that they they recharge for the coming events of the coming day.

(Note: To see a Dickinson hand-written version of this poem, please visit “Nature – the Gentlest Mother is“)

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