Poems by Emily Dickinson, Series One

XXXV

EMANCIPATION

 
No rack can torture me,
My soul's at liberty
Behind this mortal bone
There knits a bolder one
 
 
You cannot prick with saw,
Nor rend with scymitar.
Two bodies therefore be;
Bind one, and one will flee.
 
 
The eagle of his nest
No easier divest
And gain the sky,
Than mayest thou,
 
 
Except thyself may be
Thine enemy;
Captivity is consciousness,
So's liberty.
 

XXXVI

LOST

 
I lost a world the other day.
Has anybody found?
You'll know it by the row of stars
Around its forehead bound.
 
 
A rich man might not notice it;
Yet to my frugal eye
Of more esteem than ducats.
Oh, find it, sir, for me!
 

XXXVII

 
If I should n't be alive
When the robins come,
Give the one in red cravat
A memorial crumb.
 
 
If I could n't thank you,
Being just asleep,
You will know I'm trying
With my granite lip!
 

XXXVIII

 
Sleep is supposed to be,
By souls of sanity,
The shutting of the eye.
 
 
Sleep is the station grand
Down which on either hand
The hosts of witness stand!
 
 
Morn is supposed to be,
By people of degree,
The breaking of the day.
 
 
Morning has not occurred!
That shall aurora be
East of eternity;
 
 
One with the banner gay,
One in the red array, —
That is the break of day.
 

XXXIX

 
I shall know why, when time is over,
And I have ceased to wonder why;
Christ will explain each separate anguish
In the fair schoolroom of the sky.
 
 
He will tell me what Peter promised,
And I, for wonder at his woe,
I shall forget the drop of anguish
That scalds me now, that scalds me now.
 

XL

 
I never lost as much but twice,
And that was in the sod;
Twice have I stood a beggar
Before the door of God!
 
 
Angels, twice descending,
Reimbursed my store.
Burglar, banker, father,
I am poor once more!