Lyric Poem · Peace
Which is best? Heaven
Which is best? Heaven —
Or only Heaven to come
With that old Codicil of Doubt?
I cannot help esteem
The "Bird within the Hand"
Superior to the one
The "Bush" may yield me
Or may not
Too late to choose again.
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“Which is best? Heaven” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/which-is-best-heaven
Quick facts
- Poem
- Which is best? Heaven
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 9 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Peace, 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
- 9 lines · 2 stanzas of 4–5 lines
- 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.
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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
- PoetryDBWhich is best? Heaven 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 256352be34fd5329…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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