A wounded deer leaps highest
A wounded deer leaps highest,I've heard the hunter tell;'T is but the ecstasy of death,And then the brake is still.
The smitten rock that gushes,The trampled steel that springs;A cheek is always redderJust where the hectic stings!
Mirth is the mail of anguish,In which it cautions arm,Lest anybody spy the bloodAnd "You're hurt" exclaim!
Words in this poem
- hectic a.
- Habitual; constitutional; pertaining especially to slow waste of animal tissue, as in consumption; as, a hectic type in disease; a hectic flush. [F. hectique, Gr. sah to overpower, endure; cf. AS. sige, sigor, victory, G. sieg, Goth. sigis. Cf. Scheme.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A wounded deer leaps highest is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, A wounded deer leaps highest, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/a-wounded-deer-leaps-highest.html, id L18886.
Form and metre
A wounded deer leaps highest is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in short measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 -A-A gushes · springsA · redder · stingsA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A wounded deer leaps highest, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| I've heard the hunter tell; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| 'T is but the ecstasy of death, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And then the brake is still. | 6 | ······ |
| The smitten rock that gushes, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| The trampled steel that springs; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A cheek is always redder | 7 | ···/·/˘ |
| Just where the hectic stings! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Mirth is the mail of anguish, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| In which it cautions arm, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Lest anybody spy the blood | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And "You're hurt" exclaim! | 5 | ···˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.