1. Nature, the gentlest mother
Language:
English
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Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
Nature, the gentlest mother
Impatient of no child,
The feeblest or the waywardest, -
Her admonition mild
In forest and the hill
By traveller is heard,
Restraining rampant squirrel
Or too impetuous bird.
How fair her conversation,
A summer afternoon, -
Her household, her assembly;
And when the sun goes down
Her voice among the aisles
Incites the timid prayer
Of the minutest cricket,
The most unworthy flower.
When all the children sleep
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light her lamps;
Then, bending from the sky,
With infinite affection
And infiniter care,
Her golden finger on her lip,
Wills silence everywhere.
Input by Ted Perry
2. There came a wind like a bugle
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English
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Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
There came a wind like a bugle,
It quivered through the grass,
And a green chill upon the heat
So ominous did pass
We barred the window and the doors
As from an emerald ghost
The doom's electric moccasin
That very instant passed.
On a strange mob of planting trees,
And fences fled away,
And rivers where the houses ran
[The living looked that day,]1
The bell within the steeple wild,
The flying tidings [whirled]2.
How much can come and much can go,
And yet abide the world!
View text without footnotes
1 Perle: "Those looked that lived that day -"
2 Perle: "told"
3. Why do they shut me out of Heaven?
Language:
English
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Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
Why -- do they shut me out of Heaven?
Did I sing -- too loud?
But -- I can sing a little minor,
Timid as a bird.
Wouldn't the angels try me --
just -- once -- more --
Just -- see -- if I troubled them --
But don't -- shut the door!
Oh if I -- were the Gentlemen
in the White [Robe]1
and they -- were the little Hand -- that knocked --
Could -- I -- forbid?
Why do they shut me out of Heaven?
Did I sing too loud?
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1 Copland: "Robes"
4. The world feels dusty
Language:
English
Authorship
Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
The world feels dusty
[ ... ]
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5. Heart, we will forget him
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English
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Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
Heart, we will forget him
You and I, tonight.
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.
When you have done, pray tell me,
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging,
I may remember him!
6. Dear March, come in!
Language:
English
Authorship
Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
Dear March, come in!
How glad I am!
I looked for you before.
Put down your hat -
You must have walked -
How out of breath you are!
Dear March, how are you?
And the rest?
Did you leave Nature well?
Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,
I have so much to tell!
I got your letter, and the bird's;
The maples never knew
That you were coming, - I declare,
How red their faces grew!
But, March, forgive me -
And all those hills
You left for me to hue,
There was no purple suitable,
You took it all with you.
Who knocks? that April?
Lock the door!
I will not be pursued!
He stayed away a year, to call
When I am occupied.
But trifles look so trivial
As soon as you have come,
[That]1 blame is just as dear as praise
And praise as mere as blame.
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1 Copland: "And"
7. Sleep is supposed to be
Language:
English
Authorship
Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
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.
8. When they come back
Language:
English
Authorship
Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
When they come back/ if blossoms do
[ ... ]
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9. I felt a funeral in my brain
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Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
I felt a funeral in my brain,
And mourners to and fro,
Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
That sense was breaking through.
And when they all were seated
A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating, till I thought
My mind was going numb.
And then I heard them lift a box,
And creak across my soul
With those same boots of lead, again.
Then space began to toll
As all the heavens were a bell,
And Being but an ear,
And I and silence some strange race,
Wrecked, solitary, here.
10. I've heard an organ talk sometimes
Language:
English
Authorship
Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
I've heard an organ talk sometimes
[ ... ]
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11. Going to Heaven!
Language:
English
Authorship
Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
Going to Heaven!
I don't know when,
Pray do not ask me how, -
Indeed I'm too astonished
To think of answering you!
Going to Heaven! -
How dim it sounds!
And yet it will be done
As sure as flocks go home at night
Unto the shepherd's arm!
Perhaps you're going too!
Who knows?
If you should get there first
Save just a little place for me
Close to the two I lost!
The smallest "robe" will fit me,
And just a bit of "crown";
For you know we do not mind our dress
When we are going home.
[Going to Heaven!]1
I'm glad I don't believe it
For it would stop my breath,
And I'd like to look a little more
At such a curious earth!
I am glad they did believe it
Whom I have never found
Since the mighty autumn afternoon
I left them in the ground.
View text without footnotes
1 added by Copland.
12. The chariot
Language:
English
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Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):
Because I [could]1 not stop for Death --
He kindly stopped for me --
The carriage held but just ourselves --
and Immortality.
We slowly drove -- he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too
For His Civility --
We passed the school, where children played,
[ At wrestling in a ring]2
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
a swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
View text without footnotes
1 Copland, Kagen: "would"
2 Copland: "Their lessons scarcely done"
Note: another version of the Dickinson has the following after the first two stanzas:
We passed the School, where Children
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
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