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by
Emily Dickinson
Defrauded I a Butterfly --
Defrauded I a Butterfly --
The lawful Heir -- for Thee --
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by
Matsuo Basho
A caterpillar
A caterpillar,
this deep in fall--
still not a butterfly.
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by
Emily Dickinson
The Butterfly in honored Dust
The Butterfly in honored Dust
Assuredly will lie
But none will pass the Catacomb
So chastened as the Fly --
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by
Louise Gluck
The Butterfly
Look, a butterfly. Did you make a wish?
You don't wish on butterflies.
You do so. Did you make one?
Yes.
It doesn't count.
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by
Robert Burns
451. Epitaph on the same
HERE lies, now a prey to insulting neglect,
What once was a butterfly, gay in life’s beam:
Want only of wisdom denied her respect,
Want only of goodness denied her esteem.
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by
Emily Dickinson
The Butterfly's Numidian Gown
The Butterfly's Numidian Gown
With spots of Burnish roasted on
Is proof against the Sun
Yet prone to shut its spotted Fan
And panting on a Clover lean
As if it were undone --
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by
Emily Dickinson
The Butterfly's Assumption Gown
The Butterfly's Assumption Gown
In Chrysoprase Apartments hung
This afternoon put on --
How condescending to descend
And be of Buttercups the friend
In a New England Town --
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by
Marina Tsvetaeva
The Window
In the sweet, Atlantic
Breathing of spring
My curtain's like a butterfly,
Huge, fluttering
Like a Hindu widow
To a pyre's golden blaze,
Like a drowsy Naiad
To past-window seas.
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by
Emily Dickinson
The Butterfly upon the Sky,
The Butterfly upon the Sky,
That doesn't know its Name
And hasn't any tax to pay
And hasn't any Home
Is just as high as you and I,
And higher, I believe,
So soar away and never sigh
And that's the way to grieve --
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by
Emily Dickinson
A little road not made of man,
A little road not made of man,
Enabled of the eye,
Accessible to thill of bee,
Or cart of butterfly.
If town it have, beyond itself,
'T is that I cannot say;
I only sigh,--no vehicle
Bears me along that way.
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by
Liam Wilkinson
THE LUNATIC
I’m in a strange mood tonight.
I aim for the moon and laugh
as the elastic snaps behind me,
collapsing the whole contraption
until I look like the lunatic,
tangled in the chaos of the death
of a mechanical butterfly.
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by
Emily Dickinson
A soft Sea washed around the House
A soft Sea washed around the House
A Sea of Summer Air
And rose and fell the magic Planks
That sailed without a care --
For Captain was the Butterfly
For Helmsman was the Bee
And an entire universe
For the delighted crew.
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by
Emily Dickinson
Go not too near a House of Rose --
Go not too near a House of Rose --
The depredation of a Breeze --
Or inundation of a Dew
Alarms its walls away --
Nor try to tie the Butterfly,
Nor climb the Bars of Ecstasy,
In insecurity to lie
Is Joy's insuring quality.
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by
Emily Dickinson
A little Road -- not made of Man --
A little Road -- not made of Man --
Enabled of the Eye --
Accessible to Thill of Bee --
Or Cart of Butterfly --
If Town it have -- beyond itself --
'Tis that -- I cannot say --
I only know -- no Curricle that rumble there
Bear Me --
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by
Emily Dickinson
The Bee is not afraid of me.
The Bee is not afraid of me.
I know the Butterfly.
The pretty people in the Woods
Receive me cordially --
The Brooks laugh louder when I come --
The Breezes madder play;
Wherefore mine eye thy silver mists,
Wherefore, Oh Summer's Day?
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by
Emily Dickinson
When Diamonds are a Legend,
When Diamonds are a Legend,
And Diadems -- a Tale --
I Brooch and Earrings for Myself,
Do sow, and Raise for sale --
And tho' I'm scarce accounted,
My Art, a Summer Day -- had Patrons --
Once -- it was a Queen --
And once -- a Butterfly --
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by
Emily Dickinson
Some such Butterfly be seen
Some such Butterfly be seen
On Brazilian Pampas --
Just at noon -- no later -- Sweet --
Then -- the License closes --
Some such Spice -- express and pass --
Subject to Your Plucking --
As the Stars -- You knew last Night --
Foreigners -- This Morning --
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by
William Henry Davies
The Example
Here's an example from
A Butterfly;
That on a rough, hard rock
Happy can lie;
Friendless and all alone
On this unsweetened stone.
Now let my bed be hard
No care take I;
I'll make my joy like this
Small Butterfly;
Whose happy heart has power
To make a stone a flower.
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by
Emily Dickinson
The butterfly obtains
The butterfly obtains
But little sympathy
Though favorably mentioned
In Entomology --
Because he travels freely
And wears a proper coat
The circumspect are certain
That he is dissolute --
Had he the homely scutcheon
Of modest Industry
'Twere fitter certifying
For Immortality --
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by
Spike Milligan
Eurolove
I cannot
and I will not
No, I cannot love you less
Like the flower to the butterfly
The corsage to the dress
She turns my love to dust
my destination empty
my beliefs scattered: Diaspora!
Who set this course - and why?
Now my wings beat -
without purpose
Yet they speed...
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by
Emily Dickinson
The pedigree of Honey
The pedigree of Honey
Does not concern the Bee,
Nor lineage of Ecstasy
Delay the Butterfly
On spangle journeys to the peak
Of some perceiveless thing --
The right of way to Tripoli
A more essential thing.
--
The Pedigree of Honey
Does not concern the Bee --
A Clover, any time, to him,
Is Aristocracy --
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by
Emily Dickinson
'Twould ease -- a Butterfly --
'Twould ease -- a Butterfly --
Elate -- a Bee --
Thou'rt neither --
Neither -- thy capacity --
But, Blossom, were I,
I would rather be
Thy moment
Than a Bee's Eternity --
Content of fading
Is enough for me --
Fade I unto Divinity --
And Dying -- Lifetime --
Ample as the Eye --
Her least attention raise on me --
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by
Emily Dickinson
Nobody knows this little Rose
Nobody knows this little Rose --
It might a pilgrim be
Did I not take it from the ways
And lift it up to thee.
Only a Bee will miss it --
Only a Butterfly,
Hastening from far journey --
On its breast to lie --
Only a Bird will wonder --
Only a Breeze will sigh --
Ah Little Rose -- how easy
For such as thee to die!
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by
Lady Mary Chudleigh
The Wish
Remember that time you made the wish?
I make a lot of wishes.
The time I lied to you
about the butterfly. I always wondered
what you wished for.
What do you think I wished for?
I don't know. That I'd come back,
that we'd somehow be together in the end.
I wished for what I always wish for.
I wished for another poem.
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by
Emily Dickinson
Cocoon above! Cocoon below!
Cocoon above! Cocoon below!
Stealthy Cocoon, why hide you so
What all the world suspect?
An hour, and gay on every tree
Your secret, perched in ecstasy
Defies imprisonment!
An hour in Chrysalis to pass,
Then gay above receding grass
A Butterfly to go!
A moment to interrogate,
Then wiser than a "Surrogate,"
The Universe to know!
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