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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Emily Dickinson

Nobody knows this little Rose –

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Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Nobody knows this little Rose –
It might a pilgrim be
Did I not take it from the ways
And lift it up to thee.
Only a Bee will miss it –
Only a Butterfly,
Hastening from far journey –
On its breast to lie –
Only a Bird will wonder –
Only a Breeze will sigh –
Ah Little Rose – how easy
For such as thee to die!

from https://owlcation.com/humanities/emily-dickinsons-two-rose-poems-nobody-knows-this-little-rose-and-when-roses-cease-to-bloom-sir
 

The speaker is musing about the death of a small rose. She imagines its family mourning the rose’s absence. The speaker, while musing to herself, incidentally addresses God in the opening movement and then the rose itself in the final movement.

The speaker begins her lament by claiming that no one is acquainted with her subject, a simple, small rose. She has plucked this little rose, which apparently was growing in the wild.

The speaker speculates that this little rose might be "a pilgrim" for it was growing away from other flower beds. She then rather casually asks someone, likely God, or Mother Nature about her own act.

Although formed as a question, the speaker actually reveals the fact that she did pluck the little flower and then offered it up to "thee." It remains a strange confession, but it is likely that the act of plucking the rose has set her off to realizing that it will now die. But instead of just enjoying its beauty, she continues to speculate about the life of the little flower.