Emily Dickinson Poetry
Success is Counted Sweetest
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory
As he defeated--dying-On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!
I taste a liquor never brewed
I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!
Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.
When the landlord turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove's door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!
Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!
Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church -I keep it, staying at Home -With a Bobolink for a Chorister -And an Orchard, for a Dome -Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice -I just wear my Wings -And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton -- sings.
God preaches, a noted Clergyman -And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at least -I'm going, all along.
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading--treading--till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through-And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum-Kept beating--beating--till I thought
My Mind was going numb-And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space--began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here-And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down-And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing--then--
A Bird Came Down
My Tippet--only Tulle--
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground-The Roof was scarcely visible-The Cornice--in the Ground--
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
Since then--'tis Centuries--and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity--
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,-They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head
Apparently with no Surprise
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.
Because I could not stop for Death (712)
Because I could not stop for Death-He kindly stopped for me-The Carriage held but just Ourselves-And Immortality.
We slowly drove--He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility-We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess--in the Ring-We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain-We passed the Setting Sun-Or rather--He passed us-The Dews drew quivering and chill-For only Gossamer, my Gown--
Apparently with no surprise,
To any happy flower,
The frost beheads it at its play,
In accidental power.
The blond assassin passes on.
The sun proceeds unmoved,
To measure off another day,
For an approving God.
My life closed twice
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.
Water, is taught by thirst
135
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.