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For Elliott Carter, on his 95th birthday, with affection and admiration.

Sonnet
Elizabeth Bishop

Caught — the bubble
in the spirit level,
a creature divided;
and the compass needle
wobbling and wavering,
undecided.
Freed — the broken
thermometer's mercury
running away;
and the rainbow-bird
from the narrow bevel
of the empty mirror,
flying wherever
it feels like, gay!

Delight is as the flight (poem #257)
Emily Dickinson

Delight is as the flight —
Or in the Ratio of it,
As the Schools would say —
The Rainbow's way —
A Skein
Flung colored, after Rain,
Would suit as bright,
Except that flight
Were Aliment —

"If it would last"
I asked the East,
When that Bent Stripe
Struck up my childish
Firmament —
And I, for glee,
Took Rainbows, as the common way,
And empty Skies
The Eccentricity —

And so with Lives —
And so with Butterflies —
Seen magic — through the fright
That they will cheat the sight —
And Dower latitudes far on —
Some sudden morn —
Our portion — in the fashion —
Done —

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