48. “God made a little gentian.” Part Two: Nature. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems

Verse > Emily Dickinson > Complete Poems > II. Nature > 48. “God made a little gentian”

Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.

Part Two: Nature

XLVIII

GOD made a little gentian;
It tired to be a rose
And failed, and all the summer laughed.
But just before the snows
There came a purple creature	5
That ravished all the hill;
And summer hid her forehead,
And mockery was still.
The frosts were her condition;
The Tyrian would not come	10
Until the North evoked it.
“Creator! shall I bloom?”