Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Emily Dickinson

1475

Fame is the one that does not stay—
Its occupant must die
Or out of sight of estimate
Ascend incessantly—
Or be that most insolvent thing
A Lightning in the Germ—
Electrical the embryo
But we demand the Flame

Online text © 1998-2009 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson | Written c. 1879

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Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

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