Poems

All Emily Dickinson poems are untitled.


 * HAVE you got a brook in your little heart, || ||
 * Where bashful flowers blow, || ||
 * And blushing birds go down to drink, || ||
 * And shadows tremble so? || ||
 * And nobody, knows, so still it flows, || //5// ||
 * That any brook is there; || ||
 * And yet your little draught of life || ||
 * Is daily drunken there. || ||
 * Then look out for the little brook in March, || ||
 * When the rivers overflow, || //10// ||
 * And the snows come hurrying from the hills, || ||
 * And the bridges often go. || ||
 * And later, in August it may be, || ||
 * When the meadows parching lie, || ||
 * Beware, lest this little brook of life || //15// ||
 * Some burning noon go dry! ||
 * When the meadows parching lie, || ||
 * Beware, lest this little brook of life || //15// ||
 * Some burning noon go dry! ||


 * THERE is another Loneliness || ||
 * That many die without, || ||
 * Not want or friend occasions it, || ||
 * Or circumstances or lot. || ||
 * But nature sometimes, sometimes thought, || //5// ||
 * And whoso it befall || ||
 * Is richer than could be divulged || ||
 * By mortal numeral. ||
 * By mortal numeral. ||


 * SUCCESS is counted sweetest || ||
 * By those who ne’er succeed. || ||
 * To comprehend a nectar || ||
 * Requires sorest need. || ||
 * Not one of all the purple host || //5// ||
 * Who took the flag to-day || ||
 * Can tell the definition, || ||
 * So clear, of victory, || ||
 * As he, defeated, dying, || ||
 * On whose forbidden ear || //10// ||
 * The distant strains of triumph || ||
 * Break, agonized and clear. ||
 * The distant strains of triumph || ||
 * Break, agonized and clear. ||


 * I ’M nobody! Who are you? || ||
 * Are you nobody, too? || ||
 * Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell! || ||
 * They ’d banish us, you know. || ||
 * How dreary to be somebody! || //5// ||
 * How public, like a frog || ||
 * To tell your name the livelong day || ||
 * To an admiring bog! ||
 * To an admiring bog! ||


 * GOD permits industrious angels || ||
 * Afternoons to play. || ||
 * I met one,—forgot my school-mates, || ||
 * All, for him, straightway. || ||
 * God calls home the angels promptly || //5// ||
 * At the setting sun; || ||
 * I missed mine. How dreary marbles, || ||
 * After playing Crown! ||
 * After playing Crown! ||


 * I ’M ceded, I ’ve stopped being theirs; || ||
 * The name they dropped upon my face || ||
 * With water, in the country church, || ||
 * Is finished using now, || ||
 * And they can put it with my dolls, || //5// ||
 * My childhood, and the string of spools || ||
 * I ’ve finished threading too. || ||
 * Baptized before without the choice, || ||
 * But this time consciously, of grace || ||
 * Unto supremest name, || //10// ||
 * Called to my full, the crescent dropped, || ||
 * Existence’s whole arc filled up || ||
 * With one small diadem. || ||
 * My second rank, too small the first, || ||
 * Crowned, crowing on my father’s breast, || //15// ||
 * A half unconscious queen; || ||
 * But this time, adequate, erect, || ||
 * With will to choose or to reject, || ||
 * And I choose—just a throne. || ||
 * With will to choose or to reject, || ||
 * And I choose—just a throne. || ||


 * MUCH madness is divinest sense || ||
 * To a discerning eye; || ||
 * Much sense the starkest madness. || ||
 * ’T is the majority || ||
 * In this, as all, prevails. || //5// ||
 * Assent, and you are sane; || ||
 * Demur,—you ’re straightway dangerous, || ||
 * And handled with a chain. ||


 * FROM cocoon forth a butterfly || ||
 * As lady from her door || ||
 * Emerged—a summer afternoon— || ||
 * Repairing everywhere, || ||
 * Without design, that I could trace, || //5// ||
 * Except to stray abroad || ||
 * On miscellaneous enterprise || ||
 * The clovers understood. || ||
 * Her pretty parasol was seen || ||
 * Contracting in a field || //10// ||
 * Where men made hay, then struggling hard || ||
 * With an opposing cloud, || ||
 * Where parties, phantom as herself, || ||
 * To Nowhere seemed to go || ||
 * In purposeless circumference, || //15// ||
 * As ’t were a tropic show. || ||
 * And notwithstanding bee that worked, || ||
 * And flower that zealous blew, || ||
 * This audience of idleness || ||
 * Disdained them, from the sky, || //20// ||
 * Till sundown crept, a steady tide, || ||
 * And men that made the hay, || ||
 * And afternoon, and butterfly, || ||
 * Extinguished in its sea. ||
 * Till sundown crept, a steady tide, || ||
 * And men that made the hay, || ||
 * And afternoon, and butterfly, || ||
 * Extinguished in its sea. ||
 * Extinguished in its sea. ||


 * SOME things that fly there be,— ||  ||
 * Birds, hours, the bumble-bee: ||  ||
 * Of these no elegy. ||  ||
 * Some things that stay there be,— ||  ||
 * Grief, hills, eternity: ||  //5// ||
 * Nor this behooveth me. ||  ||
 * There are, that resting, rise. ||  ||
 * Can I expound the skies? ||  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How still the riddle lies! ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Can I expound the skies? || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How still the riddle lies! ||


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">LOOK back on time with kindly eyes, || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He doubtless did his best; || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How softly sinks his trembling sun || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In human nature’s west! ||