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Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

Part Three: Nature 81. I think the hemlock likes to stand

THE HEMLOCK.


I think the hemlock likes to stand

Upon a marge of snow;

It suits his own austerity,

And satisfies an awe


That men must slake in wilderness,

Or in the desert cloy, --

An instinct for the hoar, the bald,

Lapland's necessity.


The hemlock's nature thrives on cold;

The gnash of northern winds

Is sweetest nutriment to him,

His best Norwegian wines.


To satin races he is nought;

But children on the Don

Beneath his tabernacles play,

And Dnieper wrestlers run.