My thanks to Kate Benedict for reminding me that I had intended to post a few poems by the divine Miss D. Perhaps some of our members will wish to post other poems. At one time or another many of us have expressed admiration for Dickinson in one discussion or another. Perhaps there will be less controversy on this thread, but I am curious to see what others make of these two poems.
632
The Brain--is wider than the Sky--
For--put them side by side--
The one the other wil 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.
640
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
Grow 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 Sustinance--
Despair--
|
Threaded Mode
