The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Variorum Edition, Franklin, 1998
Emily Dickinson Archive
The birds begun at four o'clock Their period for dawn A music numerous as space And neighboring as noon - I could not count their forceTheir numbers did expend As brook by brook bestows itself To multiply the pond Their listener was not Except occasional manIn homely industry arrayedTo overtake the morn.Nor was it for applause That I could ascertain But independent extasyOf universe and men. By six the flood had done No tumult there had been Of dressing, or departure - Yet all the band was gone.The sun engrossed the east - The day resumed the world - The miracle that introduced - Forgotten - as fulfilled.