Emily Dickinson

By a departing light
We see acuter, quite,
Than by a wick that stays.
There’s something in the flight
That clarifies the sight
And decks the rays.
-Emily Dickinson

By a flower — By a letter —
By a nimble love —
If I weld the Rivet faster —
Final fast — above —

Never mind my breathless Anvil!
Never mind Repose!
Never mind the sooty faces
Tugging at the Forge!
-Emily Dickinson

By homely gift and hindered Words
The human heart is told
Of Nothing –
“Nothing” is the force
That renovates the World –
-Emily Dickinson

By my Window have I for Scenery
Just a Sea — with a Stem —
If the Bird and the Farmer — deem it a “Pine” —
The Opinion will serve — for them —

It has no Port, nor a “Line” — but the Jays —
That split their route to the Sky —
Or a Squirrel, whose giddy Peninsula
May be easier reached — this way —

For Inlands — the Earth is the under

By such and such an offering
To Mr. So and So,
The web of live woven –
So martyrs albums show!
-Emily Dickinson

Candor — my tepid friend —
Come not to play with me —
The Myrrhs, and Mochas, of the Mind
Are its iniquity —
-Emily Dickinson

Circumference thou Bride of Awe
Possessing thou shalt be
Possessed by every hallowed Knight
That dares to covet thee
-Emily Dickinson

Civilization — spurns — the Leopard!
Was the Leopard — bold?
Deserts — never rebuked her Satin —
Ethiop — her Gold —
Tawny — her Customs —
She was Conscious —
Spotted — her Dun Gown —
This was the Leopard’s nature — Signor —
Need — a keeper — frown?

Pity — the Pard — that left her Asia —
Memories — of Palm —
Cannot be stifled — with Narcotic —
Nor suppressed — with Balm —

Climbing to reach the costly Hearts
To which he gave the worth,
He broke them, fearing punishment
He ran away from Earth –
-Emily Dickinson

Cocoon above! Cocoon below!
Stealthy Cocoon, why hide you so
What all the world suspect?
An hour, and gay on every tree
Your secret, perched in ecstasy
Defies imprisonment!

An hour in Chrysalis to pass,
Then gay above receding grass
A Butterfly to go!
A moment to interrogate,
Then wiser than a “Surrogate,”
The Universe to know!
-Emily Dickinson

Color — Caste — Denomination —
These — are Time’s Affair —
Death’s diviner Classifying
Does not know they are —

As in sleep — All Hue forgotten —
Tenets — put behind —
Death’s large — Democratic fingers
Rub away the Brand —

If Circassian — He is careless —
If He put away
Chrysalis of Blonde — or Umber —
Equal Butterfly —

They emerge from His Obscuring —
What Death — knows so well —
Our minuter intuitions —
Deem unplausible

Come show thy Durham Breast
To her who loves thee best,
Delicious Robin –
And if it be not me
At least within my Tree
Do the avowing –
Thy Nuptial so minute
Perhaps is more astute
Than vaster suing –
For so to soar away
Is our propensity
The Day ensuing –
-Emily Dickinson

Come slowly — Eden!
Lips unused to Thee —
Bashful — sip thy Jessamines —
As the fainting Bee —

Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums —
Counts his nectars —
Enters — and is lost in Balms.
-Emily Dickinson

Conferring with myself
My stranger disappeared
Though first upon a berry fat
Miraculously fared
How paltry looked my cares
My practise how absurd
Superfluous my whole career
Beside this travelling Bird
-Emily Dickinson

Confirming All who analyze
In the Opinion fair
That Eloquence is when the Heart
Has not a Voice to spare –
-Emily Dickinson

Conjecturing a Climate
Of unsuspended Suns —
Adds poignancy to Winter —
The Shivering Fancy turns

To a fictitious Country
To palliate a Cold —
Not obviated of Degree —
Nor erased — of Latitude —
-Emily Dickinson

Conscious am I in my Chamber,
Of a shapeless friend —
He doth not attest by Posture —
Nor Confirm — by Word —

Neither Place — need I present Him —
Fitter Courtesy
Hospitable intuition
Of His Company —

Presence — is His furthest license —
Neither He to Me
Nor Myself to Him — by Accent —
Forfeit Probity —

Weariness of Him, were quainter
Than Monotony
Knew a Particle — of Space’s
Vast Society

Neither if He visit Other —
Do He dwell

Consulting summer’s clock,
But half the hours remain.
I ascertain it with a shock —
I shall not look again.
The second half of joy
Is shorter than the first.
The truth I do not dare to know
I muffle with a jest.
-Emily Dickinson

Contained in this short Life
Are magical extents
The soul returning soft at night
To steal securer thence

As Children strictest kept
Turn soonest to the sea
Whose nameless Fathoms slink away
Beside infinity
-Emily Dickinson

Cosmopolities without a plea
Alight in every Land
The compliments of Paradise
From those within my Hand

Their dappled Journey to themselves
A compensation fair
Knock and it shall be opened
Is their Theology
-Emily Dickinson

Could — I do more — for Thee —
Wert Thou a Bumble Bee —
Since for the Queen, have I —
Nought but Bouquet?
-Emily Dickinson

Could Hope inspect her Basis
Her Craft were done —
Has a fictitious Charter
Or it has none —

Balked in the vastest instance
But to renew —
Felled by but one assassin —
Prosperity –
-Emily Dickinson

Could I – then – shut the door –
Lest my beseeching face – at last –
Rejected – be – of Her?
-Emily Dickinson

Could I but ride indefinite
As doth the Meadow Bee
And visit only where I liked
And No one visit me

And flirt all Day with Buttercups
And marry whom I may
And dwell a little everywhere
Or better, run away

With no Police to follow
Or chase Him if He do
Till He should jump Peninsulas
To get away from me —

I said “But just to be a Bee”
Upon a Raft of Air
And row in Nowhere all Day

Could live — did live —
Could die — did die —
Could smile upon the whole
Through faith in one he met not,
To introduce his soul.

Could go from scene familiar
To an untraversed spot —
Could contemplate the journey
With unpuzzled heart —

Such trust had one among us,
Among us not today —
We who saw the launching
Never sailed the Bay!