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Kevin asked in Arts & HumanitiesPoetry · 7 years ago

Does anybody know the meaning of the phrase "Daintier Folk"?

It is found in the third verse of Emily Dickinson's "'Why do I love' You, Sir?" I cannot find any definition for it anywhere.

"Why do I love" You, Sir?

Because—

The Wind does not require the Grass

To answer—Wherefore when He pass

She cannot keep Her place.

Because He knows—and

Do not You—

And We know not—

Enough for Us

The Wisdom it be so—

The Lightning—never asked an Eye

Wherefore it shut—when He was by—

Because He knows it cannot speak—

And reasons not contained—

—Of Talk—

There be—preferred by Daintier Folk—

The Sunrise—Sire—compelleth Me—

Because He's Sunrise—and I see—

Therefore—Then—

I love Thee—

3 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    7 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    It means people with more refined tastes, or, if you read as being a negative comment, people with more prim and prissy tastes.

    It is about human beings. It has nothing to do with "fairies" or "changelings."

  • 7 years ago

    Sounds like part and parcel of the Fairy Folk. Under hills of changlings...it goes like this: a human baby is born, stolen by the Fairies, and sneaked off to the hills, thus the hills of Changlings. Years later, the baby emerges as a maid, man, with powers of the Little Folk. And shunned.

  • 5 years ago

    Folk Definition

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