I stepped from plank to plank
So slow and cautiously;
The stars about my head I felt,
About my feet the sea.
I knew not but the next
Would be my final inch,---
This gave me that precarious gait
Some call experience. ---Emily Dickinson
This poem is about "gaining sea legs" as a metaphor for gaining life experience. There is risk as we gain experience. When a person first embarks on a trip by ship, boat, or train, they feel unsteady walking around, as the movement beneath them is far different than being on stationary ground. However, a person readjusts to the circumstances and begins to walk around more normally again. Dickinson uses this as a metaphor for movement.
