"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 Julian Philips (b. 1969), "Afterword", 1997/2002, published 2007 [ high voice and piano ], from An Amherst Bestiary, no. 19, Peters Edition

Text Authorship:

• by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

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 [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2013-05-22
Line count: 12
Word count: 53