letters from dickinson to otis phillips lord


about 1878


Dont you know you are happiest while I withhold and not confer - dont you know that "No" is the wildest word we consign to Language?

You do, for you know all things - [top of sheet cut off] . . . to lie so near your longing - to touch it as I passed, for I am but a restive sleeper and often should journey from your Arms through the happy night, but you will lift me back, wont you, for only there I ask to be - I say, if I felt the longing nearer - than in our dear past, perhaps I could not resist to bless it, but must, beacuse it would be right

The "Stile" is God's - My Sweet One - for your great sake - not mine - I will not let you cross - but its all your's, and when it is right I will lift the Bars, and lay you in the Moss - You showed me the word.

I hope it has no different guise when my fingers make it. It is Anguish I long conceal from you to let you leave me, hungry, but you ask the divine Crust and that would doom the Bread.

The unfrequented Flower

Embellish thee - (deserving be) [sheet cut off]

I was reading a little Book - because it broke my Heart I want it to break your's - Will you think that fair? I often have read it, but not before since loving you - I find that makes a difference - it makes a difference with all. Even the whistle of a Boy passing late at Night, or the Low [?] of a Bird - [sheet cut away] Satan" - but then what I have not heard is the sweet majority - the Bible says very roguishly, that the "wayfaring Man, though a Fool - need not err therein"; need the "wayfaring" Woman? Ask your throbbing Scripture.

It may surprise you I speak of God - I know him but a little, but Cupid taught Jehovah to many an untutored Mind - Witchcraft is wiser than we -


thomas johnson's note on letter 562 | index to dickinson/lord letters

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Last updated on December 3, 1999