Freeverse
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Non omnis moriar

I had been hungry all the years;

by Emily Dickinson · Explore poems

  1. I had been hungry all the years;
  2. My noon had come, to dine;
  3. I, trembling, drew the table near,
  4. And touched the curious wine.
  5.  
  6. 'T was this on tables I had seen,
  7. When turning, hungry, lone,
  8. I looked in windows, for the wealth
  9. I could not hope to own.
  10.  
  11. I did not know the ample bread,
  12. 'T was so unlike the crumb
  13. The birds and I had often shared
  14. In Nature's dining-room.
  15.  
  16. The plenty hurt me, 't was so new, --
  17. Myself felt ill and odd,
  18. As berry of a mountain bush
  19. Transplanted to the road.
  20.  
  21. Nor was I hungry; so I found
  22. That hunger was a way
  23. Of persons outside windows,
  24. The entering takes away.

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