I Started Early — Took My Dog — Summary

This poem follows the speaker as she walks her dog by the seashore one morning. The speaker gazes out at the water, daydreaming about mermaids looking up at her from the depths and imagining that the ships can see her standing on the shore, where from their perspective she looks as small as a mouse. Her thoughts are interrupted by a sudden wave, which soaks her from shoes to bodice. She imagines that the sea is trying to eat her, that it will swallow her up as completely as it would a drop of dew, and she turns to run away, conscious that the water follows closely at her heels. It seems to her that it only gives up and recedes once she reaches the edge of the town, and that it does so with an intimidating "Mighty look."