I love the unexpected word choices that are supposed to rhyme…some you really have to stretch your tongue around—one of her trademarks! Read the poem out loud and force the rhyme with behind/pond; thread/emerald; fly/away (becomes fly and “a-why.” See what I mean? Clever poet!

She Sweeps with Many-Colored Brooms
by Emily Dickinson

She sweeps with many-colored brooms,
And leaves the shreds behind;
Oh, housewife in the evening west,
Come back, and dust the pond!

You dropped a purple ravelling in,
You dropped an amber thread;
And now you’ve littered all the East
With duds of emerald!

And still she plies her spotted brooms,
And still the aprons fly,
Till brooms fade softly into stars—
And then I come away.