Page:Emily Dickinson Poems (1890).djvu/28

 VIII.

WOUNDED deer leaps highest, I've heard the hunter tell; 'T is but the ecstasy of death, And then the brake is still.

The smitten rock that gushes, The trampled steel that springs: A cheek is always redder Just where the hectic stings!

Mirth is the mail of anguish, In which it cautions arm, Lest anybody spy the blood And "You're hurt" exclaim!