Carl Phillips:
Emily Dickinson:
We never know how high we are / Till we are called to rise; / And then, if we are true to plan, / Our statures touch the skies. // The heroism we recite / Would be a daily thing, / Did not ourselves the cubits warp / For fear to be a king.
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Paul Celan (tr. from German by Pierre Joris):
Paul Laurence Dunbar:
Kahil Gibran:
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That Celan poem is chilling and beautiful.