Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Emily Dickinson

1315

Which is the best—the Moon or the Crescent?
Neither—said the Moon—
That is best which is not—Achieve it—
You efface the Sheen.

Not of detention is Fruition—
Shudder to attain.
Transport’s decomposition follows—
He is Prism born.

Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson | Written c. 1874

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