by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Language: English 
Our translations:  FRE GER
"Nature" is what we see --
The Hill -- the Afternoon --
Squirrel -- Eclipse -- the Bumble bee --
Nay -- Nature is Heaven --
Nature is what we hear --
The Bobolink -- the Sea --
Thunder -- the Cricket --
Nay -- Nature is Harmony --
Nature is what we know --
Yet have no art to say --
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.
Confirmed with The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. R.W. Franklin, Volume 2, Cambridge, MA and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998, Poem 721 (Version A).

Composition:

    Set to music by Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927), "Nature is what we see", 2002, published 2008 [ chorus and orchestra ], from Songs for the Earth, no. 1, Seesaw/Subito ; texts by Emily Dickinson, Omar Khayyám, Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Hildegard von Bingen, Mary Oliver

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , 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: 2013-05-22
Line count: 12
Word count: 53