EMILY DICKINSON

 

*

“The heart asks pleasure first”

 

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.

 

*

“Hope is the thing with feathers”

 

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.

 

And seetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

 

*

“When I hoped I feared”

 

When I hoped I feared,

Since I hoped I dared;

Everywhere alone

As a church remain;

Spectre cannot harm,

Serpent cannot charm;

He deposes doom,

Who hath suffered him.

 

*

“A route of evanescence”

 

A route of evanescence

With a revolving wheel;

A resonance of emerald,

A rush of cochineal;

And every blossom on the bush

Adjusts its tumbled head,—

The mail from Tunis, probably,

An easy morning’s ride.

 

*

“I started early, took my dog”

 

I started early, took my dog,

And visited the sea;

The mermaids in the basement

Came out to look at me,

 

And frigates in the upper floor

Extended hempen hands.

Presuming me to be a mouse

Aground, upon the sands.

 

But no man moved me till the tide

Went past my simple shoe,

And past my apron and my belt,

And past my bodice too,

 

And made as he would eat me up

As wholly as a dew

Upon a dandelion’s sleeve—

And then I started too.

 

And he—he followed close behind;

I felt his silver heel

Upon my ankle,—then my shoes

Would overflow with pearl.

 

Until we met the solid town,

No man he seemed to know;

And bowing with a mighty look

At me, the sea withdrew.

 

*

“As imperceptibly as grief”

 

As imperceptibly as grief

The summer lapsed away,—

Too imperceptible, at last,

To seem like perfidy.

 

A quietness distilled,

As twilight long begun,

Or Nature, spending with herself

Sequestered afternoon.

The dusk drew earlier in,

The morning foreign shone,—

A courteous, yet harrowing grace,

As guest who would be gone.

 

And thus, without a wing,

Or service of a keel,

Our summer made her light escape

Into the beautiful.

 

*

“There’s a certain slant of light”

 

There’s a certain slant of light,

On winter afternoons,

That oppresses, like the weight

Of cathedral tunes.

 

Heavenly hurt it gives us;

We can find no scar,

But internal difference

Where the meanings are.

 

None may teach it anything,

’Tis the seal, despair,—

An imperial affliction

Sent us of the air.

 

When it comes, the landscape listens,

Shadows hold their breath;

When it goes, ’tis like the distance

On the look of death.

 

*

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant—”

 

Tell all the truth but tell it slant—

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth’s superb surprise

As lightning to the children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind—

 

*

“Wild nights! Wild nights!”

 

Wild nights! Wild nights!

Were I with thee,

Wild nights should be

Our luxury!

 

Futile the winds

To a heart in port,—

Done with the compass,

Done with the chart.

 

Rowing in Eden!

Ah! the sea!

Might I but moor

To-night in thee!

 

*

“A light exists in spring”

 

A light exists in spring

Not present on the year

At any other period.

When March is scarcely here

 

A color stands abroad

On solitary hills

That science cannot overtake,

But human nature feels.

 

It waits upon the lawn;

It shows the furthest tree

Upon the furthest slope we know;

It almost speaks to me.

 

Then, as horizons step,

Or noons report away,

Without the formula of sound,

It passes, and we stay:

 

A quality of loss

Affecting our content,

As trade had suddenly encroached

Upon a sacrament.

 

*

“Mine by the right of white election!”

 

Mine by the right of the white election!

Mine by the royal seal!

Mine by the sign in the scarlet prison

Bars cannot conceal!

 

Mine, here in vision and in veto!

Mine, by the grave’s repeal

Titled, confirmed,—delirious charter!

Mine, while the ages steal!

 

*

“I cannot live with you”

 

I cannot live with you,

It would be life,

And life is over there

Behind the shelf

 

The sexton keeps the key to,

Putting up

Our life, his porcelain,

Like a cup

 

Discarded of the housewife,

Quaint or broken;

A newer Sèvres pleases,

Old ones crack.

 

I could not die with you,

For one must wait

To shut the other’s gaze down,—

You could not.

 

And I, could I stand by

And see you freeze,

Without my right of frost,

Death’s privilege?

 

Nor could I rise with you,,

Because your face

Would put out Jesus’,

That new grace

 

Glow plain and foreign

On my homesick eye,

Except that you, than he

Shone closer by.

 

They’d judge us—how?

For you served Heaven, you know,

Or sought to;

I could not,

 

Because you saturated sight,

And I had no more eyes

For sordid excellence

As Paradise.

 

 

 

And were you lost, I would be,

Though my name

Rang loudest

On the heavenly fame.

And were you saved,

And I condemned to be

Where you were not,

That self were hell to me.

So we must keep apart,

You there, I here,

With just the door ajar

That oceans are,

And prayer,

And that pale sustenance,

Despair!

 

*

“Split the lark and you’ll find the music”

 

Split the lark and you’ll find the music,

Bulb after bulb, in silver rolled,

Scantily dealt to the summer morning,

Saved for your ear when lutes be old.

 

Loose the flood, you shall find it patent,

Gush after gush, reserved for you;

Scarlet experiment! sceptic Thomas,

Now, do you doubt that your bird was true?

 

*

“Safe in their alabaster chambers”

 

Safe in their alabaster chambers,

Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,

Sleep the meek members of the resurrection, _

Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.

 

Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;

Babbles the bee in a stolid ear;

Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence,—

Ah, what sagacity perished here!

 

Grand go the years in the crescent above them;

Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,

Diadems drop and Doges surrender,

Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.

 

*

“I like a look of agony”

 

I like a look of agony,

Because I know it’s true;

Men do not sham convulsion,

Nor simulate a throe.

 

The eyes glaze once, and that is death.

Impossible to feign

The beads upon. the forehead

By homely anguish strung.

 

*

“Because I could not stop for Death”

 

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

 

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

 

We passed the school where children played

At wrestling in a ring;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

 

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.

 

Since then ’tis centuries; but each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses’ heads

Were toward eternity.

 

*

“Our journey had advanced”

 

Our journey had advanced;

Our feet were almost come

To that odd fork in Being’s road,

Eternity by term.

 

Our pace took sudden awe,

Our feet reluctant led.

Before were cities, but between,

The forest of the dead.

 

Retreat was out of hope,—

Behind, a sealed route,

Eternity’s white flag before,

And God at every gate.

 

*

“I never lost as much but twice”

 

I never lost as much but twice,

And that was in the sod;

Twice have I stood a beggar

Before the door of God!

 

Angels, twice descending,

Reimbursed my store.

Burglar, banker, father,

I am poor once more!

 

*

“I felt a funeral in my brain”

 

I felt a funeral in my brain,

And mourners, to and fro,

Kept treading, treading, till it seemed

That sense was breaking through.

 

And when they all were seated,

A service like a drum

Kept beating, beating, till I thought

My mind was going numb.

 

And then I heard them lift a box,

And creak across my soul

With those same boots of lead, again.

Then space began to toll

 

As all the heavens were a bell,

And Being but an ear,

And I and silence some strange race,

Wrecked, solitary, here.

 

*

“In winter, in my room”

 

In winter, in my room,

I came upon a worm,

Pink, lank, and warm.

But as he was a worm

And worms presume,

Not quite with him at home—

Secured him by a string

To something neighboring,

And went along.

 

A trifle afterward

A thing occurred,

I’d not believe it if I heard—

But state with creeping blood;

A snake, with mottles rare,

Surveyed my chamber floor,

In feature as the worm before,

But ringed with power.

The very string

With which I tied him, too,

When he was mean and new,

That string was there.

 

I shrank—“How fair you are!”

Propitiation’s claw—

“Afraid,” he hissed,

“Of me?”

“No cordiality?”

He fathomed me.

Then, to a rhythm slim

Secreted in his form,

As patterns swim,

Projected him.

 

That time I flew,

Both eyes his way,

Lest he pursue—

Nor ever ceased to run,

Till, in a distant town,

Towns on from mine—

I sat me down;

This was a dream.

*

 

“The Bible is an antique volume”

 

The Bible is an antique volume

Written by faded men,

At the suggestion of Holy Spectres—

Subjects—Bethlehem

Eden—the ancient Homestead—

Satan—the Brigadier,

Judas—the great Defaulter,

David—the Troubadour.

Sin—a distinguished Precipice

Others must resist,

Boys that “believe”

Are very lonesome

Other boys are “lost.^

Had but the tale a warbling Teller

All the boys would come—

Orpheus’ sermon captivated,

It did not condemn.

 

*

“I reckon, when I count at all”

 

I reckon, when I count at all,

First Poets—then the Sun—

Then Summer—then the Heaven of God—

And then the list is done.

But looking back—the first so seems

To comprehend the whole—

The others look a needless show,

So I write Poets—All.

This summer lasts a solid year,

They can afford a sun

The East would deem extravagant,

And if the final Heaven

Be beautiful as they disclose

To those who trust in them,

It is too difficult a grace

To justify the dream.

 

*

“I dwell in Possibility”

 

I dwell in Possibility,

A fairer house than Prose,

More numerous of windows,

Superior of doors.

 

Of chambers, as the cedars—

Impregnable of eye;

And for an everlasting roof

The gables of the sky.

 

Of visitors—the fairest—

For occupation—this—

The spreading wide my narrow hands

To gather Paradise.

 

*

“My life had stood a loaded gun”

 

My life had stood a loaded gun

In corners, till a day

The owner passed—identified,

And carried me away.

And now we roam the sov’reign woods,

And now we hunt the doe—

And every time I speak for him

The mountains straight reply.

 

And do I smile, such cordial light

Upon the valley glow—

It is as a Vesuvian face

Had let its pleasure through.

 

And when at night, our good day done,

I guard my master’s head,

’Tis better than the eider duck’s

Deep pillow to have shared.

 

To foe of his I’m deadly foe,

None stir the second time

On whom I lay a yellow eye

Or an emphatic thumb.

 

Though I than he may longer live,

He longer must than I,

For I have but the art to kill—

Without the power to die.

 

*

“After great pains a formal feeling comes—”

 

After great pain a formal feeling comes—

The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;

The stiff Heart questions—was it He that bore?

And yesterday—or centuries before?

 

The feet mechanical

Go round a wooden way

Of ground or air or Ought, regardless grown,

A quartz contentment like a stone.

 

This is the hour of lead

Remembered if outlived,

As freezing persons recollect the snow—

First chill, then stupor, then the letting go.

 

*

“From blank to blank”

 

From blank to blank

A threadless way

I pushed mechanic feet,

To stop or perish

Or advance—

Alike indifferent

 

If end I gained,

If ends beyond

Indefinite disclosed,

I shut my eyes

And groped as well,

’Twas lighter to be blind.