Poems: Third Series

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Dickinson
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Title: Poems: Third Series
Author: Emily Dickinson
Release Date: May 3, 2004 [EBook #12241]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS:
THIRD SERIES ***
Produced by Jim Tinsley >
POEMS
by EMILY DICKINSON
Third Series
Edited by
MABEL LOOMIS TODD
It's all I have to bring to-day,
This, and my heart beside,
This, and
my heart, and all the fields,
And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you
count, should I forget, --
Some one the sum could tell, --
This, and
my heart, and all the bees
Which in the clover dwell.
PREFACE.

The intellectual activity of Emily Dickinson was so great that a large
and characteristic choice is still possible among her literary material,
and this third volume of her verses is put forth in response to the
repeated wish of the admirers of her peculiar genius. Much of Emily
Dickinson's prose was rhythmic, --even rhymed, though frequently not
set apart in lines.
Also many verses, written as such, were sent to friends in
letters;
these were published in 1894, in the volumes of her Letters. It has not
been necessary, however, to include them in this Series, and all have
been omitted, except three or four exceptionally strong ones, as "A
Book," and "With Flowers."
There is internal evidence that many of the poems were simply
spontaneous flashes of insight, apparently unrelated to outward
circumstance. Others, however, had an obvious personal origin; for
example, the verses "I had a Guinea golden," which seem to have been
sent to some friend travelling in Europe, as a dainty reminder of
letter-writing delinquencies. The surroundings in which any of Emily
Dickinson's verses are known to have been written usually serve to
explain them clearly; but in general the present volume is full of
thoughts needing no interpretation to those who apprehend this
scintillating spirit.
M. L. T.
AMHERST, October, 1896.
I. LIFE.
POEMS.
I.
REAL RICHES.
'T is little I could care for pearls
Who own the ample sea;
Or
brooches, when the Emperor
With rubies pelteth me;

Or gold, who am the Prince of Mines;
Or diamonds, when I see
A
diadem to fit a dome
Continual crowning me.
II.
SUPERIORITY TO FATE.
Superiority to fate
Is difficult to learn.
'T is not conferred by any,

But possible to earn
A pittance at a time,
Until, to her surprise,
The soul with strict
economy
Subsists till Paradise.
III.
HOPE.
Hope is a subtle glutton;
He feeds upon the fair;
And yet, inspected
closely,
What abstinence is there!
His is the halcyon table
That never seats but one,
And whatsoever
is consumed
The same amounts remain.
IV.
FORBIDDEN FRUIT.
I.
Forbidden fruit a flavor has
That lawful orchards mocks;
How
luscious lies the pea within
The pod that Duty locks!
V.
FORBIDDEN FRUIT.
II.

Heaven is what I cannot reach!
The apple on the tree,
Provided it do
hopeless hang,
That 'heaven' is, to me.
The color on the cruising cloud,
The interdicted ground
Behind the
hill, the house behind, --
There Paradise is found!
VI.
A WORD.
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to
live
That day.
VII.
To venerate the simple days
Which lead the seasons by,
Needs but
to remember
That from you or me
They may take the trifle

Termed mortality!
To invest existence with a stately air,
Needs but to remember
That
the acorn there
Is the egg of forests
For the upper air!
VIII.
LIFE'S TRADES.
It's such a little thing to weep,
So short a thing to sigh;
And yet by
trades the size of these
We men and women die!
IX.
Drowning is not so pitiful
As the attempt to rise.
Three times, 't is
said, a sinking man
Comes up to face the skies,
And then declines
forever
To that abhorred abode
Where hope and he part company,
--
For he is grasped of God.
The Maker's cordial visage,
However
good to see,
Is shunned, we must admit it,
Like an adversity.

X.
How still the bells in steeples stand,
Till, swollen with the sky,

They leap upon their silver feet
In frantic melody!
XI.
If the foolish call them 'flowers,'
Need the wiser tell?
If the savans
'classify' them,
It is just as well!
Those who read the Revelations
Must not criticise
Those who read
the same edition
With beclouded eyes!
Could we stand with that old Moses
Canaan denied, --
Scan, like
him, the stately landscape
On the other side, --
Doubtless we should deem superfluous
Many sciences
Not pursued
by learnèd angels
In scholastic skies!
Low amid that glad Belles lettres
Grant that we may stand,
Stars,
amid profound Galaxies,
At that grand 'Right hand'!
XII.
A SYLLABLE.
Could mortal lip divine
The undeveloped freight
Of a delivered
syllable,
'T would crumble with the weight.
XIII.
PARTING.
My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If
Immortality unveil
A third event to me,
So