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Memorial Day 2006
Five poems by Emily Dickinson.
67
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory
As he defeated — dying —
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!
444
It feels a shame to be Alive —
When Men so brave — are dead —
One envies the Distinguished Dust —
Permitted — such a Head —
The Stone — that tells defending Whom
This Spartan put away
What little of Him we — possessed
In Pawn for Liberty —
The price is great — Sublimely paid —
Do we deserve — a Thing —
That lives — like Dollars — must be piled
Before we may obtain?
Are we that wait — sufficient worth —
That such Enormous Pearl
As life — dissolved be — for Us —
In Battle's — horrid Bowl?
It may be — a Renown to live —
I think the Man who die —
Those unsustained — Saviors —
Present Divinity —
772
The hallowing of Pain
Like hallowing of Heaven,
Obtains at a corporeal cost —
The Summit is not given
To Him who strives severe
At middle of the Hill —
But He who has achieved the Top —
All — is the price of All —
1021
Far from Love the Heavenly Father
Leads the Chosen Child,
Oftener through Realm of Briar
Than the Meadow mild.
Oftener by the Claw of Dragon
Than the Hand of Friend
Guides the Little One predestined
To the Native Land.
1147
After a hundred years
Nobody knows the Place
Agony that enacted there
Motionless as Peace
Weeds triumphant ranged
Strangers strolled and spelled
At the lone Orthography
Of the Elder Dead
Winds of Summer Fields
Recollect the way —
Instinct picking up the Key
Dropped by memory —
Complete Poems, ed. Thomas H. Johnson, pp. 35, 213, 337, 470, 513.
See also these:
Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 05/29/06 08:13:54 AM
Categorized as Literary & Social/Cultural.
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