On this long storm the rainbow rose
Emily Dickinson · 1890
Public domain
From Poems by Emily Dickinson, published in 1890. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
On this long storm the rainbow rose,
On this late morn the sun;
The clouds, like listless elephants,
Horizons straggled down.
The birds rose smiling in their nests,
The gales indeed were done;
Alas! how heedless were the eyes
On whom the summer shone!
The quiet nonchalance of death
No daybreak can bestir;
The slow archangel's syllables
Must awaken her.