The Spider as an Artist
Has never been employed -
Though his surpassing Merit
Is freely certified

By every Broom and Bridget
Throughout a Christian Land -
Neglected Son of Genius,
I take thee by the Hand.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. R.W. Franklin, Volume 3, Cambridge, MA and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998, Poem 1373.

Text Authorship:

• by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1896 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Donald Grantham (b. 1947), "The spider as an artist", published 1983 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Seven Choral Settings of Poems by Emily Dickinson [sung text not yet checked]
• by Julian Philips (b. 1969), "The spider", 1997/2002, published 2007 [ high voice and piano ], from An Amherst Bestiary, no. 14, Peters Edition [sung text checked 1 time]

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

• GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 35

Als Künstler war die Spinne
noch niemals angestellt,
obwohl die höchsten Ränge
ihr gerne überläßt

jedwege Magd mit Besen
im weiten Christenland.
Versäumtes Musensöhnchen,
ich nehm' dich bei der Hand.