Not „nature“ but her backyard

In her 1,789 poems she refers to animals nearly 700 times, to plants almost 600 times, and to fungi four times. In her more than 350 references to flowers, the rose is most common (51 mentions) followed by daisies, clover, daffodils, and buttercups. She refers to birds 317 times, favoring the robin (47 mentions), followed by the bobolink, oriole, sparrow, blue jay, and blue bird. Although a few foreign species pop up now and then—the leopard, elephant, rhinoceros—the most frequently referenced creatures by far are the same ones she observed in her backyard every day—the bee, butterfly, and squirrel. But Dickinson’s descriptions of these creatures are entirely unexpected and linguistically innovative, urging the reader to look at the world anew: a hummingbird as a “Route of Evanescence / With a revolving Wheel”; a daffodil “untying her yellow bonnet”; an unseen choir of crickets ceaselessly eking out a “spectral canticle” from the grass.

In fact, an intimate knowledge of gardening and local wildlife is so integral to Dickinson’s work that the subjects and meanings of her poems can be rather opaque to readers who do not draw on similar expertise. / Ferris Jabr, Slate