fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

287A Clock stopped—Not the Mantel’s—Geneva’s farthest skillCan’t put the puppet bowing—That just now dangled still—An awe came on the Trinket!The Figures hunched, with pain—Then quivered out of Decimals—Into Degreeless Noon—It will not stir for Doctors—This Pendulum of snow—The Shopman importunes it—While cool—concernless No—Nods from the Gilded pointers—Nods from the Seconds slim—Decades of Arrogance betweenThe Dial life—And Him—303The Soul selects her own Society—Then—shuts the Door—To her divine Majority—Present no more—Unmoved—she notes the Chariots—pausing—At her low Gate—Unmoved—an Emperor be kneelingUpon her Mat—I’ve known her—from an ample nation—Choose One—Then—close the Valves of her attention—Like Stone—441This is my letter to the WorldThat never wrote to Me—The simple News that Nature told—With tender MajestyHer Message is committedTo Hands I cannot see—For love of Her—Sweet—countrymen—Judge tenderly—of Me46I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—The Stillness in the RoomWas like the Stillness in the Air—Between the Heaves of Storm—The Eyes around—had wrung them dry—And Breaths were gathering firmFor that last Onset—when the KingBe witnessed—in the Room—I willed my Keepsakes—Signed awayWhat portion of me beAssignable—and then it wasThere interposed a Fly—712Because I could not stop for Death—He kindly stopped for me—The Carriage held but just Ourselves—And Immortality.We slowly drove—He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility—We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recess—in the Ring—We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—We passed the Setting Sun—Or rather—He passed Us—The Dews drew quivering and chill—For only Gossamer, my Gown—My Tippet—only TulleWe paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground—The Roof was scarcely visible—The Cornice—in the Ground—Since then—’tis Centuries—and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses HeadsWere toward Eternity—248 fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007