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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
Language: English 
From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
As Lady from her Door
Emerged - a Summer Afternoon - 
Repairing Everywhere -

Without Design - that I could trace
Except to stray abroad
On Miscellaneous Enterprise
The Clovers - understood -

Her pretty Parasol was seen
Contracting in a Field
Where Men made Hay -
Then struggling hard
With an opposing Cloud -

Where Parties - Phantom as Herself -
To Nowhere - seemed to go
In purposeless Circumference,
As 'twere a Tropic Show.

And notwithstanding Bee - that worked -
And Flower - that zealous blew,
This Audience of idleness
Disdained them, from the Sky -

Till Sundown crept - a steady Tide -
And Men that made the Hay -
And Afternoon - and Butterfly -
Extinguished - in [its]1 Sea.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   S. Glickman 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Glickman: "the"

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 Sylvia Glickman (1932 - 2006), "From Cocoon forth" [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 25
Word count: 110

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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