Not with a club the heart is broken
Not with a club the heart is broken, / Nor with a stone;
THE BALLOON - You've seen balloons set, haven't you
❦
You've seen balloons set, haven't you?
So stately they ascend
It is as swans discarded you
For duties diamond.
Their liquid feet go softly out
Upon a sea of blond;
They spurn the air as 't were too mean
For creatures so renowned.
Their ribbons just beyond the eye,
They struggle some for breath,
And yet the crowd applauds below;
They would not encore death.
The gilded creature strains and spins,
Trips frantic in a tree,
Tears open her imperial veins
And tumbles in the sea.
The crowd retire with an oath
The dust in streets goes down,
And clerks in counting-rooms observe,
''T was only a balloon.'
More poems by Emily Dickinson
THE GRASS - The grass so little has to do
The grass so little has to do, -- / A sphere of simple green,
The heart asks pleasure first
The heart asks pleasure first, / And then, excuse from pain;
EXCLUSION - The soul selects her own society
The soul selects her own society, / Then shuts the door;