poems sent from dickinson to jackson


One of the ones that Midas touched
Who failed to touch us all
Was that confiding Prodigal
The reeling Oriole -

So drunk he disavows it
With badinage divine -
So dazzling we mistake him
For an alighting Mine -

A Pleader - a Dissembler -
An Epicure - a Thief -
Betimes an Oratorio -
An Ecstasy in chief -

The Jesuit of Orchards
He cheats as he enchants
Of an entire Attar
For his decamping wants -

The splendor of a Burmah
The Meteor of Birds,
Departing like a Pageant
Of Ballads and of Bards -

I never thought that Jason sought
For any Golden Fleece
But then I am a rural man
With thoughts that make for Peace -

But if there were a Jason,
Tradition bear with me
Behold his lost Aggrandizement
Upon the Apple Tree -


thomas johnson's note on poem 1466 | index to dickinson poems sent to jackson

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Commentary copyright 1998 by Martha Nell Smith, all rights reserved
Maintained by Lara Vetter <lv26@umail.umd.edu>
Last updated on October 5, 1998