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Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

As imperceptibly as grief


              1As imperceptibly as grief
              2The summer lapsed away,--
              3Too imperceptible, at last,
              4To seem like perfidy.

              5A quietness distilled,
              6As twilight long begun,
              7Or Nature, spending with herself
              8Sequestered afternoon.

              9The dusk drew earlier in,
            10The morning foreign shone,--
            11A courteous, yet harrowing grace,
            12As guest who would be gone.

            13And thus, without a wing,
            14Or service of a keel,
            15Our summer made her light escape
            16Into the beautiful.

Notes

1] The poem is differently divided in the existing manuscript version, The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin in two volumes (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1981: II, 1069; set 5; PS 1541 A1 1981 ROBA).

12] who: the existing manuscript version of poem 1540 reads "that".

14] keel: flat-bottomed boat


Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Poems (1890-1896) by Emily Dickinson: A Facsimile Reproduction of the Original Volumes Issued in 1890, 1891, and 1896, with an Introduction by George Monteiro (Gainesville, Florida: Scholars' Facsimiles & Re
First publication date: 1891
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1997.
Recent editing: 2:2002/5/31

Composition date: 1865
Rhyme: abcb (off-rhyme)


Other poems by Emily Dickinson