Civilization - spurns - the Leopard!
Was the Leopard - bold?
Deserts - never rebuked her Satin -
Ethiop - her Gold -
Tawny - her Customs -
She was Conscious -
Spotted - her Dun Gown -
This was the Leopard’s nature - Signor -
Need - a keeper - frown?

Pity - the Pard - that left her Asia -
Memories - of Palm -
Cannot be stifled - with Narcotic -
Nor suppressed - with Balm -

Confirmed with The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. R.W. Franklin, Volume 1, Cambridge, MA and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998, Poem 276.

Composition:

Set to music by Julian Philips (b. 1969), "The leopard", 1997/2002, published 2007 [ high voice and piano ], from An Amherst Bestiary, no. 11, Peters Edition

Text Authorship:

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

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

• GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , "Die Leopardin", 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: 13
Word count: 55