Dictionary Poems

South winds jostle them,Bumblebees come,Hover, hesitate,Drink, and are gone. Butterflies pauseOn their passage Cashmere;I, softly plucking,Present them here! – WITH FLOWERS – South winds jostle them by Emily Dickinson

The spider as an artist Has never been employedThough his surpassing merit Is freely certified By every broom and Bridget Throughout a Christian land.Neglected son of genius, I take thee by the hand. – COBWEBS – The spider as an artist by Emily Dickinson

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…In life after life, in age after age, forever.My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,In life after life, in age after age, forever. Whenever I hear old chronicles … Continued

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,‘Twould not be you, Niagara–nor you, ye limitless prairies–nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,Nor you, Yosemite–nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyser-loops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,Nor Oregon’s white cones–nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes–nor Mississippi’s stream:–This seething hemisphere’s … Continued

I years had been from home,And now, before the door,I dared not open, lest a faceI never saw before Stare vacant into mineAnd ask my business there.My business, — just a life I left,Was such still dwelling there? I fumbled at my nerve,I scanned the windows near;The silence like an ocean rolled,And broke against my … Continued

If thou must love me, let it be for noughtExcept for love’s sake only. Do not sayI love her for her smile–her look–her wayOf speaking gently,–for a trick of thoughtThat falls in well with mine, and certes broughtA sense of pleasant ease on such a day–For these things in themselves, Beloved, mayBe changed, or change … Continued

Through the straight pass of sufferingThe martyrs even trod,Their feet upon temptation,Their faces upon God. A stately, shriven company;Convulsion playing round,Harmless as streaks of meteorUpon a planet’s bound. Their faith the everlasting troth;Their expectation fair;The needle to the north degreeWades so, through polar air. – THE MARTYRS – Through the straight pass of suffering by … Continued

I want you to knowone thing. You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log, everything carries me to you, as if everything that exists, … Continued

He put the belt around my life, —I heard the buckle snap,And turned away, imperial,My lifetime folding upDeliberate, as a duke would doA kingdom’s title-deed, —Henceforth a dedicated sort,A member of the cloud. Yet not too far to come at call,And do the little toilsThat make the circuit of the rest,And deal occasional smilesTo lives … Continued

FOR Death,–or ratherFor the things ’twill buy,These put awayLife’s opportunity.The things that Death will buyAre Room,–EscapeFrom Circumstances,And a Name.How gifts of LifeWith Death’s gifts will compare,We know not–For the rates stop Here. – FOR Death,–or rather by Emily Dickinson