Writings by Susan Dickinson


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           "Amor"

A soft sound caught my
     Ear
Unlike the other sweetness
And putting by my prosy
     book
I sought the bird that
     made this.
----   ----   ----   ----
Perchance a passage -
     bird
Had stop't to win my
     heart
Or cat-bird had gone
     mad
And sung a human
     part -
----   ----   ----   ----
So low and tender sung

It charmed my very soul
From top-most bough
     it hung
And let the sweet notes
     fall
----   ----   ----   ----
It was proved no foreign bird,
Lost in our colder sky,
But blue-jay that I
     heard,
That instant did he fly.
----   ----   ----   ----
He sang unto his mate
In cosy nest close by,
He sang their happy fate.
He sang the sunny sky.
----   ----   ----   ----

H bMS Am 1118.95, Box 9


      Altho' he looked so gay and bright
And sat as straight as ever,
Love stole the harshness, from his note
And made his bold heart quaver -

July 1884 / I was attracted by the most
low loving notes & was so
astonished to find it the harsh
blue-jay making love I wrote this -
Perhaps it will please Lizzie



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Writings by Susan Dickinson Main Page
Image reproduced by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Not to be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.
Transcription and commentary copyright 1998 by Martha Nell Smith,
Laura Elyn Lauth, and Lara Vetter, all rights reserved
Maintained by Rebecca Mooney  <rnmooney@umd.edu>
Last updated on January 23, 2008

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