By Emily Dickinson
Date: 3 December 1998

I Had Been Hungry

I had been hungry all the years;
My noon had come, to dine;
I, trembling, drew the table near,
And touched the curious wine.

'Twas this on table I had seen,
When turning, hungry, lone,
I looked in windows, for the wealth
I could not hope to own.

I did not know the ample bread,
'Twas so unlike the crumb
The birds and I had often shared
In nature's dining-room.

The plenty hurt me, 'twas so new,
Myself felt ill and odd,
As berry of a mountain bush
Transplanted in the sod.

Nor was I hungry; so I found
That hunger was a way
of persons outside windows,
The entering takes away.

            EMILY DICKINSON