Dickinson, Emily | Emily Dickinson (Poem Date 1861?)
EMILY DICKINSON (POEM DATE 1861?)
SOURCE: Dickinson, Emily. "271." In The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, pp. 123-24. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960.
Literary scholars have speculated that the following poem by Dickinson was written circa 1861.
271
A solemn thing—it was—I said—
A woman—white—to be—
And wear—if God should count me fit—
Her blameless mystery—
A hallowed thing—to drop a life
Into the purple well—
Too plummetless—that it return—
Eternity—until—
I pondered how the bliss would look—
And would it feel as big—
When I could take it in my hand—
As hovering—seen—through fog—
And then—the size of this "small" life—
The Sages—call it small—
Swelled—like Horizons—in my vest—
And I...
[The entire page is 170 words long]
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