THE STONE FACE OF EMILY DICKINSON
by Amy Clampitt
Page 3
Now here's a satiric poem; sometimes Emily Dickinson wrote that sort of thing:
He preached upon "Breadth" till it argued him narrow -
The Broad are too broad to define
And of "Truth" until it proclaimed him a Liar
The Truth never flaunted a Sign -
Simplicity fled from his counterfeit presence
As Gold the Pyrites would shun -
What confusion would cover the innocent Jesus
To meet so enabled a Man!
(JP 1207)
The Butterfly's Assumption Gown
In Chrysoprase Apartments hung
This afternoon put on -
How condescending to descend
And be of Buttercups the friend
In a New England Town -
(JP 1244)
To pile like Thunder to it's close
Then crumble grand away
While Everything created hid
This - would be Poetry -
Or Love - the two coeval come -
We both and neither prove -
Experience either and consume -
For None see God and live -
(JP 1247)
The Mountains stood in Haze -
The Valleys stopped below
And went or waited as they liked
The River and the Sky.
At leisure was the Sun -
His interests of Fire
A little from remark withdrawn -
The Twilight spoke the Spire,
So soft upon the Scene
The Act of evening fell
We felt how neighborly a Thing
Was the Invisible.
(JP 1278)
How News must feel when travelling
If News have any Heart
Alighting at the Dwelling
'Twill enter like a Dart!
What News must think when pondering
If News have any Thought
Concerning the stupendousness
Of it's perceiveless freight!
What News will do when every Man
Shall comprehend as one
And not in all the Universe
A thing to tell remain?
(JP 1319)
Without a smile - Without a Throe
A Summer's soft Assemblies go
To their entrancing end
Unknown - for all the times we met -
Estranged, however intimate -
What a dissembling Friend -
(JP 1330)
