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Maintained by Rebecca Mooney <rnmooney@umd.edu> Last updated on J anuary 11, 2010 |
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| Poems of Emily Dickinson | |
| ENGL313: American Literature | |
| J. Auerbach | |
| Spring 2008 |
A still -- Volcano -- Life -- That flickered in the night -- When it was dark enough to do Without erasing sight -- A quiet -- Earthquake Style -- Too subtle to suspect By natures this side Naples -- The North cannot detect The Solemn -- Torrid -- Symbol -- The lips that never lie -- Whose hissing Corals part -- and shut -- And Cities -- ooze away -- |
| (JP 601; FP 517) |
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All these my banners be. I sow my pageantry In May -- It rises train by train -- Then sleeps in state again -- My chancel -- all the plain Today. To lose -- if one can find again -- To miss -- if one shall meet -- The Burglar cannot rob -- then -- The Broker cannot cheat. So build the hillocks gaily Thou little spade of mine Leaving nooks for Daisy And for Columbine -- You and I the secret Of the Crocus know -- Let us chant it softly -- “There is no more snow!” To him who keeps an Orchis’ heart -- The swamps are pink with June. |
| (JP 22; FP 29) |
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Apparently with no surprise To any happy Flower The Frost beheads it at its play -- In accidental power -- The blonde Assassin passes on -- The Sun proceeds unmoved To measure off another Day For an Approving God. |
| (JP 1624; FP 1668) |
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Bliss is the plaything of the child -- The secret of the man The sacred stealth of Boy and Girl Rebuke it if we can |
| (JP 1553; FP 1583) |
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Climbing to reach the costly Hearts To which he gave the worth, He broke them, fearing punishment He ran away from Earth -- |
| (JP 1566; FP 1626) |
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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! |
| (JP 129; FP 142) |
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He fumbles at your Soul As Players at the Keys Before they drop full Music on -- He stuns you by degrees -- Prepares your brittle Nature For the Ethereal Blow By fainter Hammers -- further heard -- Then nearer -- Then so slow Your Breath has time to straighten -- Your Brain -- to bubble Cool -- Deals -- One -- imperial -- Thunderbolt -- That scalps your naked Soul -- When Winds take Forests in their Paws -- The Universe -- is still -- |
| (JP 315; FP 477) |
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Her Losses make our Gains ashamed -- She bore Life's empty Pack As gallantly as if the East Were swinging at her Back. Life's empty Pack is heaviest, As every Porter knows -- In vain to punish Honey -- It only sweeter grows. |
| (JP 1562; FP 1602) |
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I know some lonely Houses off the Road A Robber'd like the look of -- Wooden barred, And Windows hanging low, Inviting to -- A Portico, Where two could creep -- One -- hand the Tools -- The other peep -- To make sure All's Asleep -- Old fashioned eyes -- Not easy to surprise! How orderly the Kitchen'd look, by night, With just a Clock -- But they could gag the Tick -- And Mice won't bark -- And so the Walls -- don't tell -- None -- will -- A pair of Spectacles ajar just stir -- An Almanac's aware -- Was it the Mat -- winked, Or a Nervous Star? The Moon -- slides down the stair, To see who's there! There's plunder -- where -- Tankard, or Spoon -- Earring -- or Stone -- A Watch -- Some Ancient Brooch To match the Grandmama -- Staid sleeping -- there -- Day -- rattles -- too Stealth's -- slow -- The Sun has got as far As the third Sycamore -- Screams Chanticleer "Who's there"? And Echoes -- Trains away, Sneer - "Where"! While the old Couple, just astir, Fancy the Sunrise -- left the door ajar! |
| (JP 289; FP 311) |
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I taste a liquor never brewed -- From Tankards scooped in Pearl -- Not all the Vats upon the Rhine Yield such an Alcohol! Inebriate of Air -- am I -- And Debauchee of Dew -- Reeling -- thro endless summer days -- From inns of Molten Blue -- When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee Out of the Foxglove's door -- When Butterflies -- renounce their "drams" -- I shall but drink the more! Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats -- And Saints -- to windows run -- To see the little Tippler Leaning against the -- Sun -- |
| (JP 214; FP 207) |
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It stole along so stealthy Suspicion it was done Was dim as to the wealthy Beginning not to own -- |
| (JP 1457; FP 1497) |
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It was not Death, for I stood up, And all the Dead, lie down -- It was not Night, for all the Bells Put out their Tongues, for Noon. It was not Frost, for on my Flesh I felt Siroccos -- crawl -- Not Fire -- for just my Marble feet Could keep a Chancel, cool -- And yet, it tasted, like them all, The Figures I have seen Set orderly, for Burial, Reminded me of mine -- As if my life were shaven, And fitted to a frame, And could not breathe without a key, And 'twas like Midnight, some -- When everything that ticket -- has stopped -- And Space stares all around -- Or Grisly frosts -- first Autumn morns, Repeal the Beating Ground -- But, most, like Chaos -- Stopless -- cool -- Without a Chance, or Spar -- Or even a Report of Land -- To justify -- Despair. |
| (JP 510; FP 355) |
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Like Time's insidious wrinkle On a beloved Face We clutch the Grace the tighter Though we resent the crease The Frost himself so comely Dishevels every prime Asserting from his Prism That none can punish him |
| (JP 1236; FP 1204) |
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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 -- long as Ages steal! |
| (JP 528; FP 411) |
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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 -- |
| (JP 435; FP 620) |
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My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun -- In Corners -- till a Day The Owner passed -- identified -- And carried Me away -- And now We roam in Sovereign 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 long must -- than I -- For I have but the power to kill, Without -- the power to die -- |
| (JP 754; FP 764) |
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Not One by Heaven defrauded stay -- Although he seem to steal He restitutes in some sweet way Secreted in his will -- |
| (JP 1303; FP 1296) |
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Of God we ask one favor, That we may be forgiven -- For what, he is presumed to know -- The Crime, from us, is hidden -- Immured the whole of Life Within a magic Prison We reprimand the Happiness That too competes with Heaven. |
| (JP 1601; FP 1675) |
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One need not be a Chamber -- To be Haunted -- One need not be a House -- The Brain has Corridors -- surpassing Material Place -- Far safer, of a Midnight Meeting External Ghost Than its interior Confronting -- That Cooler Host. Far Safer, through an Abbey gallop, The Stone's a'chase -- Than Unarmed, one's a'self encounter -- In lonesome Place -- Ourself behind ourself, concealed -- Should startle most -- Assassin hid in our Apartment Be Horror's least. The Body -- borrows a Revolver -- He bolts the Door -- O'erlooking a superior spectre -- Or More -- |
| (JP 670; FP 407) |
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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 above them -- Babbles the Bee in a stolid Ear, Pipe the Sweet Birds in ignorant cadence -- Ah, what sagacity perished here! |
| (JP 216; FP 124) |
To learn more about this poem, visit: Emily Dickinson Writing a Poem |
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The Brain -- is wider than the Sky -- For -- put them side by side -- The one the other will contain With ease -- and You -- beside -- The Brain is deeper than the sea -- For -- hold them -- Blue to Blue -- The one the other will absorb -- As Sponges -- Buckets -- do -- The Brain is just the weight of God -- For -- Heft them -- Pound for Pound -- And they will differ -- if they do -- As Syllable from Sound -- |
| (JP 632; FP 598) |
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The Doomed -- regard the Sunrise With different Delight -- Because -- when next it burns abroad They doubt to witness it -- The Man -- to die -- tomorrow -- Harks for the Meadow Bird -- Because its Music stirs the Axe That clamors for his head -- Joyful -- to whom the Sunrise Precedes Enamored -- Day -- Joyful -- for whom the Meadow Bird Has ought but Elegy! |
| (JP 294; FP 298) |
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There comes a warning like a spy A shorter breath of Day A stealing that is not a stealth And Summers are away -- |
| (JP 1536; FP 1560) |
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There's a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons -- That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes -- Heavenly Hurt, it gives us -- We can find no scar, But internal difference, Where the Meanings, are -- None may teach it -- Any -- '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 -- |
| (JP 258; FP 320) |
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This was a Poet -- It is That Distills amazing sense From ordinary Meanings -- And Attar so immense From the familiar species That perished by the Door -- We wonder it was not Ourselves Arrested it -- before -- Of Pictures, the Discloser -- The Poet -- it is He -- Entitles Us -- by Contrast -- To ceaseless Poverty -- Of Portion -- so unconscious -- The Robbing -- could not harm -- Himself -- to Him -- a Fortune -- Exterior -- to Time -- |
| (JP 448; FP 446) |
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Through lane it lay -- through bramble -- Through clearing and through wood -- Banditti often passed us Upon the lonely road. The wolf came peering curious -- The owl looked puzzled down -- The serpent's satin figure Glid stealthily along -- The tempests touched our garments -- The lightning's poinards gleamed -- Fierce from the Crag above us The hungry Vulture screamed -- The satyr's fingers beckoned -- The valley murmured "Come" -- These were the mates -- This was the road These children fluttered home. |
| (JP 9; FP 43) |
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'Twas Love -- not me -- Oh punish -- pray -- The Real one died for Thee -- Just Him -- not me -- Such Guilt -- to love Thee -- most! Doom it beyond the Rest -- Forgive it -- last -- 'Twas base as Jesus -- most! Let Justice not mistake -- We Two -- looked so alike -- Which was the Guilty Sake -- 'Twas Love's -- Now Strike! |
| (JP 394; FP 562) |
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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 -- Tonight -- In Thee! |
| (JP 249; FP 269) |
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Maintained by Rebecca Mooney <rnmooney@umd.edu> Last updated on J anuary 11, 2010 |
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