Poems: Three Series, Complete

by Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.

A wounded deer leaps highest, I've heard the hunter tell; 'T is but the ecstasy of death, And then the brake is still.

The heart asks pleasure first, And then, excuse from pain;

His presence is enchantment, You beg him not to go; Old volumes shake their vellum heads And tantalize, just so.

I asked no other thing, No other was denied. I offered Being for it; The mighty merchant smiled. Brazil? He twirled a button, Without a glance my way: "But, madam, is there nothing else That we can show to-day?"

To fight aloud is very brave, But gallanter, I know, Who charge within the bosom, The cavalry of woe.