Emily Dickinson · USA · 1890
Not at Home to Callers Says the Naked Tree -- Bonnet due in April -- Wishing you Good Day --
Emily Dickinson · USA · 1890
Not at Home to Callers Says the Naked Tree -- Bonnet due in April -- Wishing you Good Day --
“Not at Home to Callers…”
In this brief, striking poem, Dickinson personifies a bare winter tree as a polite but firm host who is simply not receiving visitors right now. The tree, stripped of its leaves and finery, is essentially saying it's indisposed—it's in a state of undress and not ready for company. There's gentle humor here: the tree acknowledges that better days are coming (its spring bonnet will arrive in April), but for now, in the depths of winter, it needs solitude and rest.
Why this poem matters
Emily Dickinson wrote this poem in the 1880s, during a period when she was increasingly reclusive in her Amherst, Massachusetts home. Her use of the dashed, fragmentary style and her fondness for investing natural objects with human consciousness are characteristic of her most innovative work, which remained largely unpublished during her lifetime.