Could I but ride indefinite
Emily Dickinson · 1896
Public domain
From Poems by Emily Dickinson, published in 1896. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
Could I but ride indefinite,
As doth the meadow-bee,
And visit only where I liked,
And no man visit me,
And flirt all day with buttercups,
And marry whom I may,
And dwell a little everywhere,
Or better, run away
With no police to follow,
Or chase me if I do,
Till I should jump peninsulas
To get away from you, --
I said, but just to be a bee
Upon a raft of air,
And row in nowhere all day long,
And anchor off the bar,--
What liberty! So captives deem
Who tight in dungeons are.