Emily Dickinson

«If your Nerve, deny you - | Go above your Nerve - | He can lean against the Grave, | If he fear to swerve - | That's a steady posture - | Never any bend | Held of those Brass arms - | Best Giant made - | | If your Soul seesaw - | Lift the Flesh door - | The Poltroon wants Oxygen - | Nothing more.»

«The Malay - took the Pearl - | Not - I - the Earl - | I - feared the Sea - too much | Unsanctified - to touch - | Praying that I might be | Worthy - the Destiny - | The Swarthy fellow swam - | And bore my Jewel - Home - | | Home to the Hut! What lot | Had I - the Jewel - got - | Borne on a Dusky Breast - | I had not deemed a Vest | Of Amber - fit - | | The Negro never knew | I - wooed it - too - | To gain, or be undone - | Alike to Him - One.»

«So well that I can live without - | I love thee - then How well is that? | As well as Jesus? | Prove it me | That He - loved Men - | As I - love thee.»

«Like Eyes that looked on Wastes - | Incredulous of Ought | But Blank - and steady Wilderness - | Diversified by Night - | Just Infinites of Nought - | As far as it could see - | So looked the face I looked upon - | So looked itself - on Me - | | I offered it no Help - | Because the Cause was Mine - | The Misery a Compact | As hopeless - as divine - | | Neither - would be absolved - | Neither would be a Queen | Without the Other - Therefore - | We perish - tho' We reign.»

«The Red - Blaze - is the Morning - | The Violet - is Noon - | The Yellow - Day - is falling - | And after that - is None - | But Miles of Sparks - at Evening - | Reveal the Width that burned - | The Territory Argent - that never yet - consumed.»

«A Tooth upon Our Peace | The Peace cannot deface - | Then Wherefore be the Tooth? | To vitalize the Grace - | The Heaven hath a Hell - | Itself to signalize - | And every sign before the Place - | Is Gilt with Sacrifice.»

«A Wife - at Daybreak - I shall be - | Sunrise - Hast Thou a Flag for me? | At Midnight - I am yet a Maid - | How short it takes to make it Bride - | Then - Midnight - I have passed from Thee - | Unto the East - and Victory. | Midnight - Good Night - I hear them Call - | The Angels bustle in the Hall - | Softly - my Future climbs the Stair - | I fumble at my Childhood's Prayer - | So soon to be a Child - no more - | Eternity - I'm coming - Sir - | Master - I've seen the Face - before.»

«A Night - there lay the Days between - | The Day that was Before - | And Day that was Behind - were One - | And now - 'twas Night - was here - | Slow - Night - that must be watched away - | As Grains upon a shore - | Too imperceptible to note - | Till it be Night - no more.»

«Except the Heaven had come so near - | So seemed to choose My Door - | The Distance would not haunt me so - | I had not hoped - before - | But just to hear the Grace depart - | I never thought to see - | Afflicts me with a Double loss - | 'Tis lost - and lost to me.»

«Doom is the House without the Door - | 'Tis entered from the Sun - | And then the Ladder's thrown away, | Because Escape - is done - | 'Tis varied by the Dream | Of what they do outside - | Where Squirrels play - and Berries dye - | And Hemlocks - bow - to God.»

«No Man can compass a Despair - | As round a Goalless Road | No faster than a Mile at once | The Traveller proceed - | Unconscious of the Width - | Unconscious that the Sun | Be setting on His progress - | So accurate the one | | At estimating Pain - | Whose own - has just begun - | His ignorance - the Angel | That pilot Him along.»

«So set it's Sun in Thee | What Day be dark to me | What Distance far | So I the Ships may see | That touch how seldomly | Thy Shore?»

«Expectation - is Contentment - | Gain - Satiety - | But Satiety - Conviction | Of Nescessity | Of an Austere trait in Pleasure - | Good, without alarm | Is a too established Fortune - | Danger - deepens Sum.»

«A Plated Life - diversified | With Gold and Silver Pain | To prove the presence of the Ore | In Particles - 'tis when | A Value struggle - it exist - | A Power - will proclaim | Although Annihilation pile | Whole Chaoses on Him.»

«This Bauble was preferred of Bees - | By Butterflies admired | At Heavenly - Hopeless Distances - | Was justified of Bird - | Did Noon - enamel - in Herself | Was Summer to a Score | Who only knew of Universe - | It had created Her.»

«She dealt her pretty words like Blades - | How glittering they shone - | And every One unbared a Nerve | Or wantoned with a Bone - | She never deemed - she hurt - | That - is not Steel's Affair - | A vulgar grimace in the Flesh - | How ill the Creatures bear - | | To Ache is human - not polite - | The Film upon the eye | Mortality's old Custom - | Just locking up - to Die.»

«I had no time to Hate - | Because | The Grave would hinder Me - | And Life was not so | Ample I | Could finish - Enmity - | Nor had I time to Love - | But since | Some Industry must be - | The little Toil of Love - | I thought | Be large enough for Me.»

«Unable are the Loved to die | For Love is Immortality, | Nay, it is Deity - | Unable they that love - to die | For Love reforms Vitality | Into Divinity.»

«Why make it doubt - it hurts it so - | So sick - to guess - | So strong - to know - | So brave - upon it's little Bed | To tell the very last They said | Unto Itself - and smile - And shake - | For that dear - distant - dangerous - Sake - | But - the Instead - the Pinching fear | That Something - it did do - or dare - | Offend the Vision - and it flee - | And They no more remember me - | Nor ever turn to tell me why - | Oh, Master, This is Misery.»

«He 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 - Your's reduced | Until it showed too small.»