God made a little gentian;
It tired to be a rose
And failed, and all the summer laughed.
But just before the snows
There came a purple creature
That ravished all the hill;
And summer hid her forehead,
And mockery was still.
The frosts were her condition;
The Tyrian would not come
Until the North evoked it.
“Creator! shall I bloom?”

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000. http://www.bartleby.com/113/2048.html

Text Authorship:

• by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text checked 1 time 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 Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "God made a little gentian", 2010 [ soprano and piano ], from Upon this Summer's Day -- 8 songs for Soprano and Piano, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2014-03-25
Line count: 12
Word count: 61