daily dose of Emily Dickinson

How ruthless are the gentle

How ruthless are the gentle —
How cruel are the kind —
God broke his contract to his Lamb
To qualify the Wind —

(2/2)
An instant's Push demolishes
A Questioning — dissolves.

(1/2)
The Heart has narrow Banks

The Heart has narrow Banks
It measures like the Sea
In mighty — unremitting Bass
And Blue Monotony

Till Hurricane bisect
And as itself discerns
Its insufficient Area
The Heart convulsive learns

That Calm is but a Wall
Of unattempted Gauze

Safe Despair it is that raves

Safe Despair it is that raves —
Agony is frugal.
Puts itself severe away
For its own perusal.

Garrisoned no Soul can be
In the Front of Trouble —
Love is one, not aggregate —
Nor is Dying double —

The power to be true to You

The power to be true to You,
Until upon my face
The Judgment push his Picture —
Presumptuous of Your Place —

Of This — Could Man deprive Me —
Himself — the Heaven excel —
Whose invitation — Yours reduced
Until it showed too small —

Away from Home are some and I

Away from Home are some and I —
An Emigrant to be
In a Metropolis of Homes
Is easy, possibly —

The Habit of a Foreign Sky
We — difficult — acquire
As Children, who remain in Face
The more their Feet retire.

(3/3)
A jealousy for her arose
So nearly infinite.

We waited while she passed;
It was a narrow time,
Too jostled were our souls to speak,
At length the notice came.

(2/3)
The last night that she lived,
It was a common night,
Except the dying; this to us
Made nature different.

We noticed smallest things, —
Things overlooked before,
By this great light upon our minds
Italicized, as 't were.

That others could exist
While she must finish quite,

(1/3)
The last Night that She lived

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(2/2)
It filled the Wells, it pleased the Pools
It warbled in the Road —
It pulled the spigot from the Hills
And let the Floods abroad —
It loosened acres, lifted seas
The sites of Centres stirred
Then like Elijah rode away
Upon a Wheel of Cloud.

(1/2)
Like Rain it sounded till it curved

Like Rain it sounded till it curved
And then I new 'twas Wind —
It walked as wet as any Wave
But swept as dry as sand —
When it had pushed itself away
To some remotest Plain
A coming as of Hosts was heard
That was indeed the rain -

Circumference thou Bride of Awe

Circumference thou Bride of Awe
Possessing thou shalt be
Possessed by every hallowed Knight
That dares to covet thee

Expectation — is Contentment

Expectation — is Contentment —
Gain — Satiety —
But Satiety — Conviction
Of Necessity

Of an Austere trait in Pleasure —
Good, without alarm
Is a too established Fortune —
Danger — deepens Sum —

(3/3)
A jealousy for her arose
So nearly infinite.

We waited while she passed;
It was a narrow time,
Too jostled were our souls to speak,
At length the notice came.

(2/3)
The last night that she lived,
It was a common night,
Except the dying; this to us
Made nature different.

We noticed smallest things, —
Things overlooked before,
By this great light upon our minds
Italicized, as 't were.

That others could exist
While she must finish quite,

(1/3)
The last Night that She lived

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No Life can pompless pass away

No Life can pompless pass away —
The lowliest career
To the same Pageant wends its way
As that exalted here —

How cordial is the mystery!
The hospitable Pall
A "this way" beckons spaciously —
A Miracle for all!

(2/2)
Except to those who die —

(1/2)
Summer has two Beginnings

Summer has two Beginnings —
Beginning once in June —
Beginning in October
Affectingly again —

Without, perhaps, the Riot
But graphicker for Grace —
As finer is a going
Than a remaining Face —

Departing then — forever —
Forever — until May —
Forever is deciduous

Who is the East?

Who is the East?
The Yellow Man
Who may be Purple if He can
That carries in the Sun.

Who is the West?
The Purple Man
Who may be Yellow if He can
That lets Him out again.

Not that We did, shall be the test

Not that We did, shall be the test
When Act and Will are done
But what Our Lord infers We would
Had We diviner been —

(2/2)
Last — Least —
The Cross' — Request —

(1/2)
The Test of Love — is Death

The Test of Love — is Death —
Our Lord — "so loved" — it saith —
What Largest Lover — hath
Another — doth —

If smaller Patience — be —
Through less Infinity —
If Bravo, sometimes swerve —
Through fainter Nerve —

Accept its Most —
And overlook — the Dust —

The Bird her punctual music brings

The Bird her punctual music brings
And lays it in its place —
Its place is in the Human Heart
And in the Heavenly Grace —
What respite from her thrilling toil
Did Beauty ever take —
But Work might be electric Rest
To those that Magic make —

By homely gift and hindered Words

By homely gift and hindered Words
The human heart is told
Of Nothing —
"Nothing" is the force
That renovates the World —

(2/2)
This is the Sovereign Anguish!
This — the signal woe!
These are the patient "Laureates"
Whose voices — trained — below —

Ascend in ceaseless Carol —
Inaudible, indeed,
To us — the duller scholars
Of the Mysterious Bard!

(1/2)
To learn the Transport by the Pain

To learn the Transport by the Pain
As Blind Men learn the sun!
To die of thirst — suspecting
That Brooks in Meadows run!

To stay the homesick — homesick feet
Upon a foreign shore —
Haunted by native lands, the while —
And blue — beloved air!

No Bobolink — reverse His Singing

No Bobolink — reverse His Singing
When the only Tree
Ever He minded occupying
By the Farmer be —

Clove to the Root —
His Spacious Future —
Best Horizon — gone —
Whose Music be His
Only Anodyne —
Brave Bobolink —

For each ecstatic instant

For each ecstatic instant
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ecstasy.

For each beloved hour
Sharp pittances of years —
Bitter contested farthings —
And Coffers heaped with Tears!

This is the place they hoped before

This is the place they hoped before,
Where I am hoping now.
The seed of disappointment grew
Within a capsule gay,
Too distant to arrest the feet
That walk this plank of balm —
Before them lies escapeless sea —
The way is closed they came.