Nature, the gentlest mother
Emily Dickinson
Nature, the gentlest mother, Impatient of no child, The feeblest or the waywardest,— Her admonition mild In forest and the hill By traveller is heard, Restraining rampant squirrel Or too impetuous bird. How fair her conversation, A summer afternoon,— Her household, her assembly; And when the sun goes down Her voice among the aisles Incites the timid prayer Of the minutest cricket, The most unworthy flower. When all the children sleep She turns as long away As will suffice to light her lamps; Then, bending from the sky With infinite affection And infiniter care, Her golden finger on her lip, Wills silence everywhere.
Of note
Aaron Copland chose this poem to open his 1950 song cycle, Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. He dedicated each song to a different composer friend, and this one went to David Diamond. Its piano introduction is full of trills that suggest birdsong.
FREE AND OPEN: Hello Doggo’s music, recordings and artwork: CC0 1.0, credit optional. The source poem has its own rights status: Poem is public domain.
TEXT PROVENANCE · First published 1891 in Poems by Emily Dickinson: Second Series · Text from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, a Project Gutenberg compilation of the 1890, 1891, and 1896 series.
Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete
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