Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson

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Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson Page 15

by Emily Dickinson


  Talk with prudence to a beggar

  That I did always love,

  That is solemn we have ended, —

  That short, potential stir

  That such have died enables us

  The bat is dun with wrinkled wings

  The bee is not afraid of me,

  The body grows outside, —

  The bone that has no marrow;

  The brain is wider than the sky,

  The brain within its groove

  The bustle in a house

  The butterfly's assumption-gown,

  The clouds their backs together laid,

  The cricket sang,

  The daisy follows soft the sun,

  The day came slow, till five o'clock,

  The distance that the dead have gone

  The dying need but little, dear, —

  The farthest thunder that I heard

  The gentian weaves her fringes,

  The grass so little has to do, —

  The grave my little cottage is,

  The heart asks pleasure first,

  The last night that she lived,

  The leaves, like women, interchange

  The moon is distant from the sea,

  The moon was but a chin of gold

  The morns are meeker than they were,

  The mountain sat upon the plain

  The murmur of a bee

  The murmuring of bees has ceased;

  The mushroom is the elf of plants,

  The nearest dream recedes, unrealized.

  The night was wide, and furnished scant

  The one that could repeat the summer day

  The only ghost I ever saw

  The past is such a curious creature,

  The pedigree of honey

  The rat is the concisest tenant.

  The reticent volcano keeps

  The robin is the one

  The rose did caper on her cheek,

  The show is not the show,

  The skies can't keep their secret!

  The sky is low, the clouds are mean,

  The soul selects her own society,

  The soul should always stand ajar,

  The soul unto itself

  The spider as an artist

  The springtime's pallid landscape

  The stimulus, beyond the grave

  The sun just touched the morning;

  The sun kept setting, setting still;

  The thought beneath so slight a film

  The way I read a letter 's this:

  The wind begun to rock the grass

  The wind tapped like a tired man

  Their height in heaven comforts not,

  There came a day at summer's full

  There came a wind like a bugle;

  There is a flower that bees prefer,

  There is a shame of nobleness

  There is a word

  There is no frigate like a book

  There's a certain slant of light,

  There's been a death in the opposite house

  There's something quieter than sleep

  These are the days when birds come back,

  They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars,

  They say that 'time assuages,' —

  They won't frown always, — some sweet day

  This is my letter to the world,

  This is the land the sunset washes,

  This merit hath the worst, —

  This was in the white of the year,

  This world is not conclusion;

  Though I get home how late, how late!

  Three weeks passed since I had seen her, —

  Through the straight pass of suffering

  'T is so much joy! 'T is so much joy!

  'T is sunrise, little maid, hast thou

  'T is whiter than an Indian pipe,

  Tie the strings to my life, my Lord,

  To fight aloud is very brave,

  To hang our head ostensibly,

  To hear an oriole sing

  To help our bleaker parts

  To know just how he suffered would be dear;

  To learn the transport by the pain,

  To lose one's faith surpasses

  To lose thee, sweeter than to gain

  To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, —

  To my quick ear the leaves conferred;

  To venerate the simple days

  Triumph may be of several kinds.

  'T was a long parting, but the time

  'T was just this time last year I died.

  'T was later when the summer went

  'T was such a little, little boat

  Two butterflies went out at noon

  Two swimmers wrestled on the spar

  Undue significance a starving man attaches

  Unto my books so good to turn

  Upon the gallows hung a wretch,

  Victory comes late,

  Wait till the majesty of Death

  Water is taught by thirst;

  We cover thee, sweet face.

  We learn in the retreating

  We like March, his shoes are purple,

  We never know how high we are

  We never know we go, — when we are going

  We outgrow love like other things

  We play at paste,

  We thirst at first, — 't is Nature's act;

  Went up a year this evening!

  What if I say I shall not wait?

  What inn is this

  What mystery pervades a well!

  What soft, cherubic creatures

  When I hoped I feared,

  When I was small, a woman died.

  When night is almost done,

  When roses cease to bloom, dear,

  Where every bird is bold to go,

  Where ships of purple gently toss

  Whether my bark went down at sea,

  While I was fearing it, it came,

  Who has not found the heaven below

  Who never lost, are unprepared

  Who never wanted, — maddest joy

  Who robbed the woods,

  "Whose are the little beds," I asked,

  Wild nights! Wild nights!

  Will there really be a morning?

  Within my reach!

  You cannot put a fire out;

  You left me, sweet, two legacies, —

  You've seen balloons set, haven't you?

  Your riches taught me poverty.

 

 

 


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