Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924. |
Part Two: Nature
LXXXI
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| I THINK the hemlock likes to stand | |
| Upon a marge of snow; | |
| It suits his own austerity, | |
| And satisfies an awe | |
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| That men must slake in wilderness, | 5 |
| Or in the desert cloy,— | |
| An instinct for the hoar, the bald, | |
| Lapland’s necessity. | |
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| The hemlock’s nature thrives on cold; | |
| The gnash of northern winds | 10 |
| Is sweetest nutriment to him, | |
| His best Norwegian wines. | |
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| To satin races he is nought; | |
| But children on the Don | |
| Beneath his tabernacles play, | 15 |
| And Dnieper wrestlers run. | |
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