Page:The complete poems of Emily Dickinson, (IA completepoemsofe00dick 1).pdf/62

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POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON

The maimed may pause and breathe,
And glance securely round.
The deer invites no longer
Than it eludes the hound.


LXXVI

I HAD been hungry all the years;
My noon had come, to dine;
I, trembling, drew the table near,
And touched the curious wine.

’T was this on tables I had seen,
When turning, hungry, lone,
I looked in windows, for the wealth
I could not hope to own.

I did not know the ample bread,
’T was so unlike the crumb
The birds and I had often shared
In Nature’s dining-room.

The plenty hurt me, ’t was so new,—
Myself felt ill and odd,
As berry of a mountain bush
Transplanted to the road.

Nor was I hungry; so I found
That hunger was a way
Of persons outside windows,
The entering takes away.

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