Writings by Susan Dickinson


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 "Crushed before the Moth"

Waif of the Summer night
All soft in velvet dust
Frail devotee of Light
So bent on idle guest.
---- ---- ---- ----
Fluttering in helpless
     flight
A hint of Tropic heat
Faint in the morning light
Thy silly life complete.

Oh man of pride and
     boast
This is thy stronger host -
"Thou'rt crushed before the
     moth"

H bMS Am 1118.95, Box 9


 [editors' note: title marked with pencil parentheses]
----------(IRONY)----------

"crushed before the moth"
     Job
[editors' note: book from which there are many excisions in ED's Bible]


[editor's note: written in pencil in right corner of page]:

Waif of the summer night
A myth in velvet dust
Frail devotee of light
Shivering in idle quest

Tinted with Tyrian dyes
A hint of tropic heat
Faint in the early morning
Thy silly life complete


[editor's note: written in pencil on left side of page and above typescript, from the book of Job; Susan is quoting directly from the King James version of the Bible]:

Whose foundation is
in the dust which are
crushed before the moth- Job


[?] A myth in velvet dust, 2
  4 Frail devotee of light
So bent on idle quest! 3
  2 Waif of the Summer night; 1
  1 Tinted with Tyrian dyes,
  2     A hint of tropic heat-
  3 Faint in the morning light dawn
  4     Thy silly life complete.

O man of pride and boast,
     Is this thy stronger host?
Thou'rt "crushed before the moth" .


[editor's note: written in pencil beneath typescript]:

Frail devotee of light

1 A myth in velvet dust
2 Waif of the Summer night
3 Spiraling in idle quest
Waif of the Summer night
4 Frail devotee of light


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Image reproduced by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Not to be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.
Transcription and commentary copyright 1998 by Martha Nell Smith,
Laura Elyn Lauth, and Lara Vetter, all rights reserved
Maintained by Rebecca Mooney  <rnmooney@umd.edu>
Last updated on January 25, 2008

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