My Life Closed Twice, by Emily Dickinson

My Life Closed Twice

My life closed twice before its close—

It yet remains to see

If Immortality unveil

A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive

As these that twice befell.

Parting is all we know of heaven,

And all we need of hell.

To make a prairie it takes a clove… One clover, and a bee. And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.

30 Adrift! A little boat adrift! And night is coming down! Will no one guide a little boat Unto the nearest town?

107 ’Twas such a little—little boat That toddled down the bay! ’Twas such a gallant—gallant sea That beckoned it away!

329 So glad we are—a Stranger’d deem ’Twas sorry, that we were— For where the Holiday should be There publishes a Tear—

LIX I TOOK my power in my hand And went against the world; ’T was not so much as David had, But I was twice as bold.

A little bread—a crust—a crumb— A little trust—a demijohn— Can keep the soul alive— Not portly, mind! but breathing—wa… Conscious—as old Napoleon,

XXXVII LOVE is anterior to life, Posterior to death, Initial of creation, and The exponent of breath.

112 Where bells no more affright the m… Where scrabble never comes— Where very nimble Gentlemen Are forced to keep their rooms—

XXIII A bird came down the walk: He did not know I saw; He bit an angle-worm in halves And ate the fellow, raw.

276 Many a phrase has the English lan… I have heard but one— Low as the laughter of the Cricke… Loud, as the Thunder’s Tongue—

489 We pray—to Heaven— We prate—of Heaven— Relate—when Neighbors die— At what o’clock to heaven—they fle…

879 Each Second is the last Perhaps, recalls the Man Just measuring unconsciousness The Sea and Spar between.

LVIII PORTRAITS are to daily faces As an evening west To a fine, pedantic sunshine In a satin vest.

A PRECIOUS, mouldering pleasur… To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore… A privilege, I think, His venerable hand to take,

The spry Arms of the Wind If I could crawl between I have an errand imminent To an adjoining Zone - I should not care to stop