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Lyric Poem · Nature

Go not too near a House of Rose

by Emily Dickinson

Go not too near a House of Rose —

The depredation of a Breeze —

Or inundation of a Dew

Alarms its walls away —

Nor try to tie the Butterfly,

Nor climb the Bars of Ecstasy,

In insecurity to lie

Is Joy's insuring quality.

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Quick facts

Poem
Go not too near a House of Rose
Poet
Emily Dickinson
Length
8 lines
Form
Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes
Nature, Short

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
8 lines · 2 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
Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Emily Dickinson1830–1886
Source record
PoetryDBGo not too near a House of Rose 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 8938fbe3e6b7031f
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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