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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

If the foolish, call them “flowers“

Emily Dickinson

168

If the foolish, call them “flowers“—
Need the wiser, tell?
If the Savants “Classify” them
It is just as well!

Those who read the “Revelations”
Must not criticize
Those who read the same Edition—
With beclouded Eyes!

Could we stand with that Old “Moses”—
“Canaan” denied—
Scan like him, the stately landscape
On the other side—

Doubtless, we should deem superfluous
Many Sciences,
Not pursued by learned Angels
In scholastic skies!

Low amid that glad Belles lettres
Grant that we may stand,
Stars, amid profound Galaxies—
At that grand “Right hand”!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson | Written c. 1860
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