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Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

Part Four: Time and Eternity 95. Death is like the insect

DEATH.


Death is like the insect

Menacing the tree,

Competent to kill it,

But decoyed may be.


Bait it with the balsam,

Seek it with the knife,

Baffle, if it cost you

Everything in life.


Then, if it have burrowed

Out of reach of skill,

Ring the tree and leave it, --

'T is the vermin's will.

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