Most she touched me by her muteness -
Most she won me by the way
She presented her small figure -
Plea itself - for Charity -

Were a Crumb my whole possession -
Were there famine in the land -
Were it my resource from starving -
Could I such a plea withstand -

Not upon her knee to thank me
Sank this Beggar from the Sky -
But the Crumb partook - departed -
And returned On High -

I supposed - when sudden
Such a Praise began
'Twas as Space sat singing
To herself - and men -

'Twas the Winged Beggar -
Afterward I learned
To her Benefactor
Making Gratitude

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, [1960], pages 372-373.

Text Authorship:

• by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written c1863, first published 1929 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Julian Philips (b. 1969), "The winged beggar", 1997/2002, published 2007 [high voice and piano], from the collection An Amherst Bestiary, no. 4, Peters Edition [
   text verified 1 time
  ]

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

• GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , title 1: "Die beflügelte Bettlerin", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2014-04-15
Line count: 20
Word count: 98