Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Emily Dickinson

39

It did not surprise me—
So I said—or thought—
She will stir her pinions
And the nest forgot,

Traverse broader forests—
Build in gayer boughs,
Breathe in Ear more modern
God’s old fashioned vows—

This was but a Birdling—
What and if it be
One within my bosom
Had departed me?

This was but a story—
What and if indeed
There were just such coffin
In the heart instead?

Online text © 1998-2010 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson | Written c. 1858

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