It may well have run its course, but it was a great thread, Michael.
Now, well, we'll need a thread for Emily, no doubt one of the most underestimated poets of all time - despite her great fame. In a hundred years, hopefully less, she will be getting the attention her work deserves. Certainly, she's gotten tons of attention, but not equal to her merit. I still read it said that Emily was "the greatest woman [female] poet who ever lived", or some such. This is supposed to be a compliment, but it's not. Not really. It's nearly as awful as that word, poetess, a word which needs to be stricken from the lexicon.
She was, no, is, one of the greatest poets who ever lived.
Who else could have written this poem, among her contemporaries? The first stanza could have been written today.
***
I cannot live with You
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 Broke --
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 meet apart --
You there -- I -- here --
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are -- and Prayer --
And that White Sustenance --
Despair --
Last edited by William A. Baurle; 02-21-2017 at 08:18 PM.
Reason: editing
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