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Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Retrospect


              1'Twas just this time, last year, I died.
              2    I know I heard the corn,
              3When I was carried by the farms,--
              4    It had the tassels on.

              5I thought how yellow it would look
              6    When Richard went to mill;
              7And then I wanted to get out,
              8    But something held my will.

              9I thought just how red apples wedged
            10    The stubble's joints between;
            11And carts went stooping round the fields
            12    To take the pumpkins in.

            13I wondered which would miss me least,
            14    And when Thanksgiving came,
            15If Father'd multiply the plates
            16    To make an even sum.

            17And if my stocking hung too high,
            18    Would it blur the Christmas glee,
            19That not a Santa Claus could reach
            20    The altitude of me?

            21But this sort grieved myself, and so
            22    I thought how it would be
            23When just this time, some perfect year,
            24    Themselves should come to me.

Notes

4] tassels: fine hairs found at the end of corn husks

17-18] The existing manuscript version of poem 445, 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: I, 349-50; fascicle 16; PS 1541 A1 1981 ROBA), reads:

And would it blur the Christmas glee
My stocking hang too high

19] The existing manuscript version reads "For any Santa Claus to reach".

22] The existing manuscript version reads "And so I thought the other way".

23] When: the existing manuscript version reads "How".

24] Themselves: the existing manuscript version reads "Themself".


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).
First publication date: 1896
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1997
Recent editing: 2:2002/5/31

Composition date: 1862
Rhyme: abcb (off-rhyme)


Other poems by Emily Dickinson