Just Butterflies - and - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

PHOTO SOURCE: National Geographic online images]

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Butterfly – A poem #354 by Emily Dickinson

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 be 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 the Sea --

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[PHOTO SOURCE: National Geographic online images]

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Butterfly – A poem #541 by Emily Dickinson

Some such Butterfly be seen

On Brazilian Pampas --
Just at noon -- no later -- Sweet --
Then -- the License closes --

Some such Spice -- express and pass --

Subject  to Your Plucking --
As the Stars -- You knew last Night --
Foreigners -- This Morning –

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 [PHOTO SOURCE: National Geographic online images]

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Butterfly – A poem #533 by Emily Dickinson

Two Butterflies went out at Noon --

And waltzed upon a Farm --
Then stepped straight through the Firmament
And rested, on a Beam --

And then -- together bore away

Upon a shining Sea --
Though never yet, in any Port --
Their coming, mentioned -- be --

If spoken by the distant Bird --

If met in Ether Sea
By Frigate, or by Merchantman --
No notice -- was -- to me --

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A SPECIAL THANK YOU for a PERFECT gift and remembrance from a KINDRED SPIRIT and FRIEND -- A Book of Poems by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. This Book is very special to me, for it was only this year (2011) that I was delightfully surprised to find that Emily and I had the same maternal "many" great grandparents.  I am delighted to call Emily my maternal Cousin. And, I am very grateful for Ancestry.com for help in researching my Family History.  Many thanks again for this wonderful Book of Poetry goes to my SPECIAL FRIEND who knows how much Family and Friendship mean to me.  -- WITH warm affection, respect, and friendship, Dee [Dorothy Hazel Tarr - 2011]

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Rainy Days and Rainbows

[PHOTO SOURCE: National Geographic online images, GRAND CANYON RAINBOW]

{A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to a VERY SPECIAL FRIEND for the VERY SPECIAL GIFT OF A BOOK OF POETRY BY EMILY ELIZABETH DICKINSON.  dht-2011}

(INSPIRATION from the rain that fell this morning over my roof, and set the leaves to sparkle in the sunshine -- that has come out and the sky that is chuck full of glorious RAINBOWS!  ~dht-MAY 2011)

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A Drop fell on the Apple Tree --

Another -- on the Roof --

A Half a Dozen kissed the Eaves --

And made the Gables laugh –

A few went out to help the Brook

That went to help the Sea --

Myself Conjectured were they Pearls --

What Necklaces could be—

The Dust replaced, in Hoisted Roads --

The Birds jocoser sung --

The Sunshine threw his Hat away –

The Bushes --  spangles flung –

The Breezes brought dejected Lutes --

And bathed them in the Glee -

The Orient showed a single Flag,

And signed the Fete away --

[~ A Poem #794  By: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson]

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WHAT this poem by my Maternal Cousin Emily Elizabeth Dickenson says to me -- OR why didn't you just say so (Emily's poem #794):

It seems this is about a summer rain shower and how it refreshes and changes the land as the water cycles (a chain of nature as a chain of pearls in a necklace) through nature as rain, streams, rivers, seas, oceans, then evaporation and storms and rain again.  How the land is blessed, kissed by the rain, decorated by glittering raindrops, and dust is settled.  How the rain makes soft and cheery sounds on the roof and birds sing their song.  How the sunshine 'gave it up' and the clouds and rain prevailed in rain shower festivities (fete), until the sun came out again from the East and displayed a rainbow (flag).  How the rain and wind washes the leaves (pear shaped leaves like a lute.)  [~ dht-2011]

What's a Butterfly – Quotes

[Photo Source: Google online images]

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“What's a butterfly garden without butterflies?” [~Roy Rogers]

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

And find your shoulder to light on,
To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, tomorrow and beyond.
[~Irish Blessing]

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. [~Author Unknown]

The fluttering of a butterfly's wings can effect climate changes on the other side of the planet. [~Paul Erlich]

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. [~Richard Buckminster Fuller]

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine. [~Jeffrey Glassberg]

The butterfly is a flying flower, the flower a tethered butterfly.

[~Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun]

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. [~Nathaniel Hawthorne]

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." [~Hans Christian Anderson]

Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes. [~Author Unknown]

I've watched you now a full half-hour;

Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! Indeed,
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless! - not frozen seas,
More motionless! And then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!
[~William Wordsworth, "To a Butterfly"]

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. [~Charles Dickens]

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. [~Author Unknown]

It is necessary to write, if the days are not

to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to
clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?
For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is
gone. That is where the writer scores
over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.
[~Vita Sackville-West]

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. [~Carl Sagan]

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. [~Rabindranath Tagore]

I WISH YOU TIME ENOUGH, TO REACH YOUR HEART'S DESIRE WITH LOVE OVERFLOWING AND KINDRED SPIRITS TO SHARE IT WITH !! [~dht-21 May 2011]

**JUST BUTTERFLIES -- lightly touching your HEART and dancing in the air. [dht-2011]**

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SO SAY I----->

DO you have a favorite BUTTERFLY poem, quote, saying, dream, and/or thought?

Any thoughts about the quotes proffered here about BUTTERFLYs?

WHAT does the BUTTERFLY mean to you (if anything)? (ie., change, love, spring, nature, bugs, insects) ~dht-21 May 2011

WHAT SAY YOU -------> ????

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"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."  This is the most thought provoking of the above quotes for me - for it's so easy to relate those words to humans.  But I like all the sayings - good work in putting this together.  Thank You so much."  [A comment proffered by my Friend  ~CAV-21May 2011]