letters from dickinson to elizabeth holland


To Mrs. J.G. Holland
From ED


spring 1885


Dear Sister,

To "gain the whole World" in the Evening Mail, without the baleful forfeit hinted in the Scripture, was indeed achievement - and I was led resisting to Bed, but Vinnie was firm as the Soudan -

Thank you tenderly - I was breathlessly interested.

Contention "loves a shining Mark." Only fight about me, said the dying King, and my Crown is sure -

It is only the Moss upon my Throne that impairs my Dying.

None of us know her enough to judge her, so her Maker must be her "Crowner's Quest" - Saul criticized his Savior till he became enamored of him - then he was less loquacious -

It was lovely to see your Hand again in the old attitude - a literary one, and the Present flew like a Butterfly, and the Past was, but there we must not linger - too many linger with us -

Love for the "Holy Family," and say to the Son that the Little Boy in the Trinity had no Grandmama, only a Holy Ghost -

But you must go to Sleep. I, who sleep always, need no Bed.

Foxes have Tenements, and remember, the Speaker was a Carpenter -

          Emily.


thomas johnson's note on letter 979 | index to dickinson/holland letters

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Last updated on January 21, 1999