Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Emily Dickinson

1716

Death is like the insect
Menacing the tree,
Competent to kill it,
But decoyed may be.

Bait it with the balsam,
Seek it with the saw,
Baffle, if it cost you
Everything you are.

Then, if it have burrowed
Out of reach of skill—
Wring the tree and leave it,
’Tis the vermin’s will.

Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

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