Joy to have merited the Pain --

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Joy to have merited the Pain --
To merit the Release --
Joy to have perished every step --
To Compass Paradise --

Pardon -- to look upon thy face --
With these old fashioned Eyes --
Better than new -- could be -- for that --
Though bought in Paradise --

Because they looked on thee before --
And thou hast looked on them --
Prove Me -- My Hazel Witnesses
The features are the same --

So fleet thou wert, when present --
So infinite -- when gone --
An Orient's Apparition --
Remanded of the Morn --

The Height I recollect --
'Twas even with the Hills --
The Depth upon my Soul was notched --
As Floods -- on Whites of Wheels --

To Haunt -- till Time have dropped
His last Decade away,
And Haunting actualize -- to last
At least -- Eternity --

© Emily Dickinson