Emily Dickinson Poems

67

Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need. Not one of all the purple host Who took the flag to-day Can tell the definition, So clear, of victory! As he, defeated, dying, On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph Burst agonized and clear!

1261

A Word dropped careless on a Page May stimulate an eye When folded in perpetual seam The Wrinkled Maker lie Infection in the sentence breeds We may inhale Despair At distances of Centuries From the Malaria—

712

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 strove At Recess - in the Ring - We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain - We passed the Setting Sun - Or rather - He passed us - The Dews drew quivering and chill - For only Gossamer, my Gown - My Tippet - only Tulle - We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground - The Roof was scarcely visible - The Cornice - in the Ground - Since then - 'tis Centuries - and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity -

486

I was the slightest in tAnnotatehe House I took the smallest Room At night, my little Lamp, and Book And one Geranium So stationed I could catch the Mint That never ceased to fall And just my Basket Let me think—I'm sure That this was all I never spoke—unless addressed And then, 'twas brief and low I could not bear to live—aloud The Racket shamed me so And if it had not been so far And any one I knew Were going—I had often thought How noteless—I could die

288

I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell! they'd advertise - you know! How dreary - to be - Somebody! How public - like a Frog - To tell one's name - the livelong June - To an admiring Bog!

280

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 - And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down - And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing - then -

77

I never hear the word 'Escape' Without a quicker blood, A sudden expectation - A flying attitude! I never hear of prisons broad By soldiers battered down, But I tug childish at my bars, Only to fail again!

593

I think I was enchanted When first a sombre Girl— I read that Foreign Lady— The Dark—felt beautiful— And whether it was noon at night— Or only Heaven—at Noon— For very Lunacy of Light I had not power to tell— The Bees—became as Butterflies— The Butterflies—as Swans— Approached—and spurned the narrow Grass— And just the meanest Tunes That Nature murmured to herself To keep herself in Cheer— I took for Giants—practising Titanic Opera— The Days—to Mighty Metres stept— The Homeliest—adorned As if unto a Jubilee 'Twere suddenly confirmed— I could not have defined the change— Conversion of the Mind Like Sanctifying in the Soul— Is witnessed—not explained— 'Twas a Divine Insanity— The Danger to be Sane Should I again experience— 'Tis Antidote to turn— To Tomes of solid Witchcraft— Magicians be asleep— But Magic—hath an Element Like Deity—to keep—

435

Much Madness is divinest Sense - To a discerning Eye - Much Sense - the starkest Madness - 'Tis the Majority In this, as all, prevail - Assent - and you are sane - Demur - you're straightway dangerous - And handled with a Chain -

1737

Rearrange a "Wife's" Affection! When they dislocate my Brain! Amputate my freckled Bosom! Make me bearded like a man! Blush, my spirit, in thy Fastness - Blush, my unacknowledged clay - Seven years of troth have taught thee More than Wifehood every may! Love that never leaped its socket - Trust entrenched in narrow pain - Constancy thro' fire - awarded - Anguish - bare of anodyne! Burden - borne so far triumphant - None suspect me of the crown, For I wear the "Thorns" till Sunset - Then - my Diadem put on. Big my Secret but it's bandaged - It will never get away Till the Day its Weary Keeper Leads it through the Grave to thee.

108

Surgeons must be very careful When they take the knife! Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the Culprit - Life!

441

THIS is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me,— The simple news that Nature told, With tender majesty. Her message is committed To hands I cannot see; For love of her, sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me!

512

The Soul has Bandaged moments— When too appalled to stir— She feels some ghastly Fright come up And stop to look at her— Salute her, with long fingers— Caress her freezing hair— Sip, Goblin, from the very lips The Lover—hovered—o'er— Unworthy, that a thought so mean Accost a Theme—so—fair— The soul has moments of Escape— When bursting all the doors— She dances like a Bomb, abroad, And swings upon the Hours, As do the Bee—delirious borne— Long Dungeoned from his Rose— Touch Liberty—then know no more, But Noon, and Paradise— The Soul's retaken moments— When, Felon led along, With shackles on the plumed feet, And staples, in the Song, The Horror welcomes her, again, These, are not brayed of Tongue—

303

The soul selects her own society, Then shuts the door; On her divine majority Obtrude no more. Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing At her low gate; Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling Upon her mat. I've known her from an ample nation Choose one; Then close the valves of her attention Like stone.