Had I not This, or This, I said
Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)
Had I not This, or This, I said,
Appealing to Myself,
In moment of prosperity—
Inadequate—were Life—
"Thou hast not Me, nor Me"—it said,
In Moment of Reverse—
"And yet Thou art industrious—
No need—hadst Thou—of us"?
My need—was all I had—I said—
The need did not reduce—
Because the food—exterminate—
The hunger—does not cease—
But diligence—is sharper—
Proportioned to the Chance—
To feed upon the Retrograde—
Enfeebles—the Advance—
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 16, 2023
- 21 sec read
- 646 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AXXX AXBB AXXX XCXC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 471 |
Words | 71 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Had I not This, or This, I said" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/11668/had-i-not-this,-or-this,-i-said>.
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