The Battlefield, by Emily Dickinson

The Battlefield

They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars,

Like petals from a rose,

When suddenly across the June

A wind with fingers goes.

They perished in the seamless grass,—

No eye could find the place;

But God on his repealless list

Can summon every face.

XX ARCTURUS is his other name,— I ’d rather call him star! It ’s so unkind of science To go and interfere!

774 It is a lonesome Glee— Yet sanctifies the Mind— With fair association— Afar upon the Wind

838 Impossibility, like Wine Exhilarates the Man Who tastes it; Possibility Is flavorless—Combine

577 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—

The Face we choose to miss - Be it but for a Day As absent as a Hundred Years, When it has rode away.

Growth of Man—like Growth of Nat… Gravitates within— Atmosphere, and Sun endorse it— Bit it stir—alone— Each—its difficult Ideal

217 Savior! I’ve no one else to tell— And so I trouble thee. I am the one forgot thee so— Dost thou remember me?

They say that ‘time assuages,’— Time never did assuage; An actual suffering strengthens, As sinews do, with age. Time is a test of trouble,

385 Smiling back from Coronation May be Luxury— On the Heads that started with us… Being’s Peasantry—

884 As Everywhere of Silver With Ropes of Sand To keep it from effacing The Track called Land.

725 Where Thou art—that—is Home— Cashmere—or Calvary—the same— Degree—or Shame— I scarce esteem Location’s Name—

883 The Poets light but Lamps— Themselves—go out— The Wicks they stimulate— If vital Light

396 There is a Languor of the Life More imminent than Pain— ’Tis Pain’s Successor—When the S… Has suffered all it can—

688 “Speech”—is a prank of Parliament… “Tears”—is a trick of the nerve— But the Heart with the heaviest f… Doesn't—always—move—

624 Forever—it composed of Nows— ’Tis not a different time— Except for Infiniteness— And Latitude of Home—