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Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

There's a certain slant of light


              1There's a certain slant of light,
              2On winter afternoons,
              3That oppresses, like the weight
              4Of cathedral tunes.

              5Heavenly hurt it gives us;
              6We can find no scar,
              7But internal difference
              8Where the meanings are.

              9None may teach it anything,
            10'Tis the seal, despair,--
            11An imperial affliction
            12Sent us of the air.

            13When it comes, the landscape listens,
            14Shadows hold their breath;
            15When it goes, 'tis like the distance
            16On the look of death.

Notes

2] The existing manuscript version of poem 258 reads just "Winter afternoons" (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, 270; fascicle 13; PS 1541 A1 1981 ROBA).

3] weight: solemnity, "weightiness" (the existing manuscript version reads "heft")

9] anything: the existing manuscript version reads "any"


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: 1890
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1997.
Recent editing: 2:2002/6/7

Composition date: 1861
Rhyme: abcb


Other poems by Emily Dickinson