Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924. |
Part Five: The Single Hound
CXI
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| WHO were “the Father and the Son”— | |
| We pondered when a child, | |
| And what had they to do with us— | |
| And when portentous told | |
| With inference appalling, | 5 |
| By Childhood fortified, | |
| We thought, “at least they are no worse | |
| Than they have been described.” | |
| |
| Who are “the Father and the Son”— | |
| Did we demand today, | 10 |
| “The Father and the Son” himself | |
| Would doubtless specify, | |
| But had they the felicity | |
| When we desired to know, | |
| We better Friends had been, perhaps, | 15 |
| Than time ensue to be. | |
| |
| We start, to learn that we believe | |
| But once, entirely— | |
| Belief, it does not fit so well | |
| When altered frequently. | 20 |
| We blush, that Heaven if we achieve, | |
| Event ineffable— | |
| We shall have shunned, until ashamed | |
| To own the Miracle. | |
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