Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete · Emily Dickinson
Chapter 57
Chapter 56 of 146 · 1 min read
CALLED BACK.
Just lost when I was saved! Just felt the world go by! Just girt me for the onset with eternity, When breath blew back, And on the other side I heard recede the disappointed tide!
Therefore, as one returned, I feel, Odd secrets of the line to tell! Some sailor, skirting foreign shores, Some pale reporter from the awful doors Before the seal!
Next time, to stay! Next time, the things to see By ear unheard, Unscrutinized by eye.
Next time, to tarry, While the ages steal, — Slow tramp the centuries, And the cycles wheel.
II. LOVE.
I.
CHOICE.
Of all the souls that stand create I have elected one. When sense from spirit files away, And subterfuge is done;
When that which is and that which was Apart, intrinsic, stand, And this brief tragedy of flesh Is shifted like a sand;
When figures show their royal front And mists are carved away, — Behold the atom I preferred To all the lists of clay!
II.
I have no life but this, To lead it here; Nor any death, but lest Dispelled from there;
Nor tie to earths to come, Nor action new, Except through this extent, The realm of you.
