The Judge is like the Owl -
I’ve heard my Father tell -
And Owls do build in Oaks -
So here’s an Amber Sill -

That slanted in my Path -
When going to the Barn -
And if it serve You for a House -
Itself is not in vain -

About the price - ’tis small -
I only ask a Tune
At Midnight - Let the Owl select
His favourite Refrain.

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 728.

Composition:

Set to music by Julian Philips (b. 1969), "The owl", 1997/2002, published 2007 [ high voice and piano ], from An Amherst Bestiary, no. 6, Peters Edition

Text Authorship:

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

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

• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le hibou", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , "Die Eule", 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: 2014-08-28
Line count: 12
Word count: 64