The Heart Asks Pleasure First

Emily Dickinson · 1890

Catalog grade guidance: 8–12 — Short lyric; Todd/Higginson text of the three early series.

9 content lines · 40 words · Est. recitation about 25 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #12242, Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

IX.

The heart asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;

And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.