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B. Penn

39: She will stir her pinions

 

39

It did not surprise me – 
So I said – or thought – 
She will stir her pinions 
And the nest forgot, 

Traverse broader forest – 
Build in gayer boughs, 
Breathe in Ear more modern 
God's old fashioned vows – 

This was but a Birdling – 
What and if it be 
One within my bosom 
Had departed me? 

This was but a story – 
What and if indeed 
There were just such coffin 
In the heart instead?

c. 1858                                                    1945

by Emily Dickinson
from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by Thomas H. Johnson 

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