Poems by Emily Dickinson, Series One

Dickinson, Emily

• Publisher: pubOne.info
• Year: 2010
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9782819942450
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

XII.

IN VAIN.

  I CANNOT live with you,

  It would be life,

  And life is over there

  Behind the shelf

  The sexton keeps the key to,

  Putting up

  Our life, his porcelain,

  Like a cup

  Discarded of the housewife,

  Quaint or broken;

  A newer Sevres pleases,

  Old ones crack.

  I could not die with you,

  For one must wait

  To shut the other's gaze down, —

  You could not.

  And I, could I stand by

  And see you freeze,

  Without my right of frost,

  Death's privilege?

  Nor could I rise with you,

  Because your face

  Would put out Jesus',

  That new grace

  Glow plain and foreign

  On my homesick eye,

  Except that you, than he

  Shone closer by.

  They'd judge us — how?

  For you served Heaven, you know,

  Or sought to;

  I could not,

  Because you saturated sight,

  And I had no more eyes

  For sordid excellence

  As Paradise.

  And were you lost, I would be,

  Though my name

  Rang loudest

  On the heavenly fame.

  And were you saved,

  And I condemned to be

  Where you were not,

  That self were hell to me.

  So we must keep apart,

  You there, I here,

  With just the door ajar

  That oceans are,

  And prayer,

  And that pale sustenance,

  Despair!

XIII.

RENUNCIATION.

  There came a day at summer's full

  Entirely for me;

  I thought that such were for the saints,

  Where revelations be.

  The sun, as common, went abroad,

  The flowers, accustomed, blew,

  As if no soul the solstice passed

  That maketh all things new.

  The time was scarce profaned by speech;

  The symbol of a word

  Was needless, as at sacrament

  The wardrobe of our Lord.

  Each was to each the sealed church,

  Permitted to commune this time,

  Lest we too awkward show

  At supper of the Lamb.

  The hours slid fast, as hours will,

  Clutched tight by greedy hands;

  So faces on two decks look back,

  Bound to opposing lands.

  And so, when all the time had failed,

  Without external sound,

  Each bound the other's crucifix,

  We gave no other bond.

  Sufficient troth that we shall rise —

  Deposed, at length, the grave —

  To that new marriage, justified

  Through Calvaries of Love!

XIV.

LOVE'S BAPTISM.

  I'm ceded, I've stopped being theirs;

  The name they dropped upon my face

  With water, in the country church,

  Is finished using now,

  And they can put it with my dolls,

  My childhood, and the string of spools

  I've finished threading too.

  Baptized before without the choice,

  But this time consciously, of grace

  Unto supremest name,

  Called to my full, the crescent dropped,

  Existence's whole arc filled up

  With one small diadem.

  My second rank, too small the first,

  Crowned, crowing on my father's breast,

  A half unconscious queen;

  But this time, adequate, erect,

  With will to choose or to reject.

  And I choose — just a throne.

XV.

RESURRECTION.

'T was a long parting, but the time

For interview had come;

Before the judgment-seat of God,

The last and second time

These fleshless lovers met,

A heaven in a gaze,

A heaven of heavens, the privilege

Of one another's eyes.

No lifetime set on them,

Apparelled as the new

Unborn, except they had beheld,

Born everlasting now.

Was bridal e'er like this?

A p...

Table of contents

• POEMS
• PREFACE.
• —JT
• I.
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• VI.
• VII.
• VIII.
• IX.
• X.
• XI.
• XII.
• XIII.
• XIV.
• XV.
• XVI.
• XVII.
• XVIII.
• XIX.
• XX.
• XXI.
• XXII.
• XXIII.
• XXIV.
• XXV.
• XXVI.
• II.
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• VI.
• VII.
• VIII.
• IX.
• X.
• XI.
• XII.
• XIII.
• XIV.
• XV.
• XVI.
• XVII.
• XVIII.
• III.
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• VI.
• VII.
• VIII.
• IX.
• X.
• XI.
• XII.
• XIII.
• XIV.
• XV.
• XVI.
• XVII.
• XVIII.
• XIX.
• XX.
• XXI.
• XXII.
• XXIII.
• XXIV.
• XXV.
• XXVI.
• XXVII.
• XXVIII.
• XXIX.
• XXX.
• XXXI.
• IV.
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• VI.
• VII.
• VIII.
• IX.
• X.
• XI.
• XII.
• XIII.
• XIV.
• XV.
• XVI.
• XVII.
• XVIII.
• XIX.
• XX.
• XXI.
• XXII.
• XXIII.
• XXIV.
• XXV.
• XXVI.
• XXVII.
• XXVIII.
• XXIX.
• XXX.
• XXXI.
• XXXII.
• XXXIII.
• XXXIV.
• XXXV.
• XXXVI.
• XXXVII.
• XXXVIII.
• XXXIX.
• XL.
• Copyright