Life poems
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Love -- is that later Thing than Death --
© Emily Dickinson
Love -- is that later Thing than Death --
More previous -- than Life --
Confirms it at its entrance -- And
Usurps it -- of itself --
Life, and Death, and Giants --
© Emily Dickinson
Life, and Death, and Giants --
Such as These -- are still --
Minor -- Apparatus -- Hopper of the Mill --
Beetle at the Candle --
Or a Fife's Fame --
Maintain -- by Accident that they proclaim --
Life -- is what we make of it --
© Emily Dickinson
Life -- is what we make of it --
Death -- we do not know --
Christ's acquaintance with Him
Justify Him -- though --
Let Us play Yesterday --
© Emily Dickinson
Let Us play Yesterday --
I -- the Girl at school --
You -- and Eternity -- the
Untold Tale --
It's easy to invent a Life --
© Emily Dickinson
It's easy to invent a Life --
God does it -- every Day --
Creation -- but the Gambol
Of His Authority --
It troubled me as once I was --
© Emily Dickinson
It troubled me as once I was --
For I was once a Child --
Concluding how an Atom -- fell --
And yet the Heavens -- held --
It came his turn to beg --
© Emily Dickinson
It came his turn to beg --
The begging for the life
Is different from another Alms
'Tis Penury in Chief --
If she had been the Mistletoe
© Emily Dickinson
If she had been the Mistletoe
And I had been the Rose --
How gay upon your table
My velvet life to close --
If I may have it, when it's dead,
© Emily Dickinson
If I may have it, when it's dead,
I'll be contented -- so --
If just as soon as Breath is out
It shall belong to me --
If He were living -- dare I ask --
© Emily Dickinson
If He were living -- dare I ask --
And how if He be dead --
And so around the Words I went --
Of meeting them -- afraid --
If He dissolve -- then
© Emily Dickinson
If He dissolve -- then --
there is nothing -- more --
Eclipse -- at Midnight --
It was dark -- before --
I watched the Moon around the House
© Emily Dickinson
I watched the Moon around the House
Until upon a Pane --
She stopped -- a Traveller's privilege -- for Rest --
And there upon
I took one Draught of Life --
© Emily Dickinson
I took one Draught of Life --
I'll tell you what I paid --
Precisely an existence --
The market price, they said.
I tie my Hat -- I crease my Shawl
© Emily Dickinson
I tie my Hat -- I crease my Shawl --
Life's little duties do -- precisely --
As the very least
Were infinite -- to me --
I think to Live -- may be a Bliss
© Emily Dickinson
I think to Live -- may be a Bliss
To those who dare to try --
Beyond my limit to conceive --
My lip -- to testify --
I showed her Heights she never saw
© Emily Dickinson
I showed her Heights she never saw --
"Would'st Climb," I said?
She said -- "Not so" --
"With me --" I said -- With me?
I should have been too glad, I see
© Emily Dickinson
I should have been too glad, I see --
Too lifted -- for the scant degree
Of Life's penurious Round --
My little Circuit would have shamed
This new Circumference -- have blamed --
The homelier time behind.
I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
© Emily Dickinson
I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
Because they told me to --
But stopped, when qualified to guess
How prayer would feel -- to me --
I never hear that one is dead
© Emily Dickinson
I never hear that one is dead
Without the chance of Life
Afresh annihilating me
That mightiest Belief,
I meant to have but modest needs
© Emily Dickinson
I meant to have but modest needs --
Such as Content -- and Heaven --
Within my income -- these could lie
And Life and I -- keep even --
