Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Emily Dickinson

1462

We knew not that we were to live—
Nor when—we are to die—
Our ignorance—our cuirass is—
We wear Mortality
As lightly as an Option Gown
Till asked to take it off—
By his intrusion, God is known—
It is the same with Life—

Online text © 1998-2008 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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