Lyric Poem · Nature

Except to Heaven, she is nought

by Emily Dickinson

Reading room

1Except to Heaven, she is nought.

2Except for Angels — lone.

3Except to some wide-wandering Bee

4A flower superfluous blown.

5Except for winds — provincial.

6Except by Butterflies

7Unnoticed as a single dew

8That on the Acre lies.

9The smallest Housewife in the grass,

10Yet take her from the Lawn

11And somebody has lost the face

12That made Existence — Home!

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“Except to Heaven, she is nought” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/except-to-heaven-she-is-nought

Quick facts

Poem: Except to Heaven, she is nought
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Peace

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 12 lines · 3 quatrains
End rhyme: No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.
Line length: Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

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Author record: Emily Dickinson1830–1886
Source record: PoetryDBExcept to Heaven, she is nought by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 4ae53167e09add70…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Nature Peace

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