Three by Dickinson III

Poems by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson.

465

I heard a Fly buzz — when I died —
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air —
Between the Heaves of Storm —

The Eyes around — had wrung them dry —
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset — when the King
Be witnessed — in the Room —

I willed my Keepsakes — Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable — and then it was
There interposed a Fly —

With Blue — uncertain stumbling Buzz —
Between the light — and me —
And then the Windows failed — and then
I could not see to see —

(1862/1896)

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 —
My Tippet — only Tulle —

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground —
The Roof was scarcely visible —
The Cornice — in the Ground —

Since then — 'tis Centuries — and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity —

(1863/1890)

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 —

(1861/1896)

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960), ed. Thomas H. Johnson, pp. 223f, 350, 128f.

See also Three by Dickinson II: Poems by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/16/04 03:47:25 PM
Categorized as Literary & Sunday Poetry Series.

Blogworthies XXXVI

Because The Blog from the Core simply can't cover everything.

Noteworthy entries @ Sed Contra, HerbEly, Inkwell, Discriminations, Defensor Fidei, cut on the bias, JustOneMinute, GetReligion, Midwest Conservative Journal, Lead and Gold, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Belmont Club, BeldarBlog, SecretAgentMan's Dossier, and Cor ad cor loquitur.

John Kerry and Mary Cheney @ Sed Contra:

There have been several correspondents lately who have asked me if I had an opinion about John Kerry's use of Mary Cheney, the daughter of vice president Dick Cheney who self-identifies as lesbian, in an answer in the last debate.....

Presidential Debates: A Search for the Truth? @ HerbEly:

After listening to the debate last night [Oct. 13], I ran across a zen saying and tracked it down in a previously unfamiliar blog — Mystic Cowboy. The saying, from the Third Zen Patriarch, is "Do not search for the truth. Only cease to cherish opinions."

In terms of Ignatian Spirituality, we are all subject to “inordinate attachments”....

Lynne Cheney, Outraged Mom @ Inkwell:

Lynne Cheney is furious at Sen. John F. Kerry — and I don’t blame her. During last night’s [Oct. 13] debate, gratuitously and without a shred of supporting evidence, Kerry remarked that Mary Cheney, Lynne’s and Vice President Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter, "would probably say she was born that way" (the quote comes from a WBAY-TV news report). What? How would Kerry know?...

Liberals vs. Conservatives: It's A Matter Of Interpretation @ Discriminations:

The issue of judicial appointments is almost certain to come up in tonight's presidential debate, with President Bush criticizing the Democrats for blocking his appointment of judges who will "interpret, not make" laws and Sen. Kerry complaining about nominees who are "out of the mainstream" etc. etc....

What A Shame @ Defensor Fidei:

.... I'm watching the third presidential debate right now, and CBS moderator Bob Schieffer just raised the question of abortion. In answering the question, Sen. Kerry quoted the following from James 2: ....

Answering Dem questions @ cut on the bias:

As you know, I'm writing some this election season at the Detroit News political weblog, which has a mix of liberal and conservative writers. John Needham is one of the liberal writers, and apparently for a while he was asking me questions that I wasn't answering....

Great Scott! We Help Andrew And The Codebreakers @ JustOneMinute:

Andrew Sullivan prompts our jaw to drop on (and to) multiple levels with this post, which I excerpt more or less fully: ....

Another clash of dogmas in the New York Times @ GetReligion:

There they go again.

Once again, the New York Times is shocked, shocked to discover that a few of the nation's Roman Catholic bishops believe that there should be a connection between abortion (an issue treated with singular seriousness by the Vatican) and the ballot box (the final holy of holies for newspaper elites)....

Robbie Does Washington @ Midwest Conservative Journal:

I avoid paying excessive attention here to the pseudo-Christian publicity whores who infest the Episcopal Church like flies at a church picnic. It's bad enough that the regular media considers them genuine "Christian" voices and it's useless to argue with such people. And I can only take charlatans like John Shelby Spong in very small doses. But Gene Robinson's recent visit to Washington, DC illustrates why the Lambeth Commission report, due out in a week, is probably dead on arrival: ....

A war to be won @ Lead and Gold:

It has been nearly sixty years since the Axis surrendered, yet we are still learning about World War Two. As specialists unearth new documents and offer new interpretations, the existing general histories become inadequate....

The University as Business @ ProfessorBainbridge.com:

Living in the ivy-covered halls of academe, as I do, I am fairly well inured to the disdain of most academics for the business world....

Pillar of Salt @ Belmont Club:

Matt Bai tries to articulate the Kerry strategy against terror in the New York Times Magazine. Kerry, he thinks, was one of the first political leaders to realize that war as we formerly knew it is obsolete. Bai believes Kerry's experience with law-enforcement issues in the Senate alerted him to a new kind of threat that was grounded in neither formal state aggression or normal criminal groups....

The blogging mindset and the compulsion to "show your work" @ BeldarBlog:

I honestly don't remember whether it was in grade school, junior high, or high school that I first had math teachers who insisted that my written homework assignments, in addition to reporting the problems' answers, also "show my work" — the calculations I'd done in support of the solution I was offering up. Most students chafe at such requirements, and I suppose that I did as well. I certainly took no perverse joy in the English composition assignments that were intended to familiarize me with writing footnotes and bibliographies either....

Canonization? Can-Do! @ SecretAgentMan's Dossier (ellipsis in original):

From time to time people, for some odd reason, email me with questions about Catholicism. Usually I answer by return email. But a question sent recently reminded me that the reason I started this blog was to discuss and praise the wonders of Catholicism. That's been a bit thin on the ground here, recently. I get distracted by so many things like movies, recipes, the latest installment of the USCC Follies.... See? I'm doing it again. So I thought I'd write a long reply. I left out the first paragraph, which has identifying information in it. My correspondent's words are in blue, my replies in black....

Is Sola Fide (Faith Alone) a Legitimate Development of Patristic & Augustinian Soteriology? @ Cor ad cor loquitur:

Heresy can only be defined as the apostles and Church Fathers defined it, according to the ancient principle of apostolic succession. In a nutshell, heresy is that which has not been passed down from the beginning, from the apostles and our Lord Jesus. If something is novel and cannot be traced back, it is heresy, and to be utterly rejected, according to St. Paul in particular. All other definitions are ultimately circular....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/16/04 08:16:37 AM
Categorized as Blogworthies.