Dickinson Poetry
Because I could not stop for
Death (712)
by Emily Dickinson
Mekari 2013-14
There's a certain Slant of light
(258)
by Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the Seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –
Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
I heard a Fly buzz (465)
by Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air –
Between the Heaves of Storm –
The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset – when the King
Be witnessed – in the Room –
My life closed twice before its
close (96)
by Emily Dickinson
My life closed twice before its close—
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell
The Soul selects her own
Society (303)
by Emily Dickinson
I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
What portions of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –
The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more —
With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –
Between the light – and me –
And then the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –
Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing —
At her low Gate —
Unmoved — an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat —
I've known her — from an ample nation —
Choose One —
Then — close the Valves of her attention —
Like Stone —
Dickinson Poetry
The Brain – is wider than the
sky
by Emily Dickinson
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 –
There is a solitude of space
by Emily Dickinson
There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself –
Finite Infinity.
Water is taught by thirst.
by Emily Dickinson
Water, is taught by thirst,
Land – by the Oceans passed.
Transport – by throe –
Peace – by its battles told –
Love, by memorial Mold –
Birds, by the Snow.
Mekari 2013-14