Emily Dickinson Lexicon

POKE, v.t.¹ [Corn. pokkia, to thrust or push. In Armoric, pochan is one that dives or plunges.]

1. Properly, to thrust; hence to feel or search for with a long instrument. – Brown.
2. To thrust at with the horns, as an ox; a popular use of the word in New England. And intransitively, to poke at, is to thrust the horns at.