E-Text

Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

Part Four: Time and Eternity 5. On this long storm the rainbow rose

On this long storm the rainbow rose,

On this late morn the sun;

The clouds, like listless elephants,

Horizons straggled down.


The birds rose smiling in their nests,

The gales indeed were done;

Alas! how heedless were the eyes

On whom the summer shone!


The quiet nonchalance of death

No daybreak can bestir;

The slow archangel's syllables

Must awaken her.