Dictionary Poems

Blameless as daylight I stood lookingAt a field of horses, necks bent, manes blown,Tails streaming against the greenBackdrop of sycamores. Sun was strikingWhite chapel pinnacles over the roofs,Holding the horses, the clouds, the leaves Steadily rooted though they were all flowingAway to the left like reeds in a seaWhen the splinter flew in and stuck … Continued

AFTER the last red sunset glimmer,Black on the line of a low hill rise,Formed into moving shadows, I sawA plowboy and two horses lined against the gray,Plowing in the dusk the last furrow.The turf had a gleam of brown,And smell of soil was in the air,And, cool and moist, a haze of April. I shall … Continued

Proud of my broken heart since thou didst break it, Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee,Proud of my night since thou with moons dost slake it, Not to partake thy passion, my humility. – CONSECRATION – Proud of my broken heart since thou didst break it, by Emily Dickinson

To fight aloud is very brave,But gallanter, I know,Who charge within the bosom,The cavalry of woe. Who win, and nations do not see,Who fall, and none observe,Whose dying eyes no countryRegards with patriot love. We trust, in plumed procession,For such the angels go,Rank after rank, with even feetAnd uniforms of snow. – To fight aloud … Continued

My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!And yet they seem alive and quiveringAgainst my tremulous hands which loose the stringAnd let them drop down on my knee to-night.This said,–he wished to have me in his sightOnce, as a friend: this fixed a day in springTo come and touch my hand . . . a … Continued

The day came slow, till five o’clock,Then sprang before the hillsLike hindered rubies, or the lightA sudden musket spills. The purple could not keep the east,The sunrise shook from fold,Like breadths of topaz, packed a night,The lady just unrolled. The happy winds their timbrels took;The birds, in docile rows,Arranged themselves around their prince(The wind is … Continued

No matter how he toil and striveThe fate of every man aliveWith luck will be to lie alone,His empty name cut in a stone. Grim time the fairest fame will flout,But though his name be blotted out,And he forgotten with his peers,His stone may wear a year of years. No matter how we sow and … Continued

Full of life now, compact, visible,I, forty years old the eighty-third year of the States,To one a century hence or any number of centuries hence,To you yet unborn these, seeking you. When you read these I that was visible am become invisible,Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me,Fancying how happy you … Continued

At school I never gained a prize,Proving myself the model ass;Yet how I watched the wistful eyes,And cheered my mates who topped the class.No envy in my heart I found,Yet bone was worthier to ownThose precious books in vellum bound,Than I, a dreamer and a drone. No prize at school I ever gained(Shirking my studies, … Continued

Who robbed the woods,The trusting woods?The unsuspecting treesBrought out their burrs and mossesHis fantasy to please.He scanned their trinkets, curious,He grasped, he bore away.What will the solemn hemlock,What will the fir-tree say? – Who robbed the woods by Emily Dickinson