Dickinson bends down to a little stone on a garden path.

A stone without a career

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was an American poet. Her poem about a little roadside stone takes unmistakable pleasure in asking what life might be like without a career.

Travelling without a task

The stone rambles down the road as naturally as a walker. Nobody is waiting for it. It has not even had to choose its brown coat: a passing universe has put it on.

How happy is the little stone
That rambles in the road alone,
And does n’t care about careers,
And exigencies never fears;
Whose coat of elemental brown
A passing universe put on;
And independent as the sun,
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute decree
In casual simplicity.[1]

Alone or in company

The stone can join others or glow alone. In that respect it resembles the sun. The closing lines hold two difficult ideas together: the stone fulfils an absolute decree, yet does so as casually as if it had never received instructions.