Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete · Emily Dickinson
Chapter 11
Chapter 112 of 146 · 2 min read
If the foolish call them 'flowers,' Need the wiser tell? If the savans 'classify' them, It is just as well!
Those who read the Revelations Must not criticise Those who read the same edition With beclouded eyes!
Could we stand with that old Moses Canaan denied, — Scan, like him, the stately landscape On the other side, —
Doubtless we should deem superfluous Many sciences Not pursued by learnèd angels In scholastic skies!
Low amid that glad Belles lettres Grant that we may stand, Stars, amid profound Galaxies, At that grand 'Right hand'!
XII.
A SYLLABLE.
Could mortal lip divine The undeveloped freight Of a delivered syllable, 'T would crumble with the weight.
XIII.
PARTING.
My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive, As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.
XIV.
ASPIRATION.
We never know how high we are Till we are called to rise; And then, if we are true to plan, Our statures touch the skies.
The heroism we recite Would be a daily thing, Did not ourselves the cubits warp For fear to be a king.
XV.
THE INEVITABLE.
While I was fearing it, it came, But came with less of fear, Because that fearing it so long Had almost made it dear. There is a fitting a dismay, A fitting a despair. 'Tis harder knowing it is due, Than knowing it is here. The trying on the utmost, The morning it is new, Is terribler than wearing it A whole existence through.
XVI.
A BOOK.
There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away, Nor any coursers like a page Of prancing poetry. This traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of toll; How frugal is the chariot That bears a human soul!
XVII.
Who has not found the heaven below Will fail of it above. God's residence is next to mine, His furniture is love.
XVIII.
A PORTRAIT.
A face devoid of love or grace, A hateful, hard, successful face, A face with which a stone Would feel as thoroughly at ease As were they old acquaintances, — First time together thrown.
