Poems — Second Series by Emily Dickinson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Mabel Loomis Todd

No Brigadier Throughout the Year

No brigadier throughout the year So civic as the jay. A neighbor and a warrior too, With shrill felicity

Pursuing winds that censure us A February day, The brother of the universe Was never blown away.

The snow and he are intimate; I 've often seen them play When heaven looked upon us all With such severity,

I felt apology were due To an insulted sky, Whose pompous frown was nutriment To their temerity.

The pillow of this daring head Is pungent evergreens; His larder — terse and militant — Unknown, refreshing things;

His character a tonic, His future a dispute; Unfair an immortality That leaves this neighbor out.

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