Happy Birthday, Emily Dickinson!

[eldritchhobbit]

Happy birthday to Emily Dickinson (10 December, 1830 – 15 May, 1886)!



XXXV. EMANCIPATION.

No rack can torture me,
My soul's at liberty.
Behind this mortal bone
There knits a bolder one

You cannot prick with saw,
Nor rend with scymitar.
Two bodies therefore be;
Bind one, and one will flee.

The eagle of his nest
No easier divest
And gain the sky,
Than mayest thou,

Except thyself may be
Thine enemy;
Captivity is consciousness,
So 's liberty.

- Emily Dickinson (1890)

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

"And you read your Emily Dickinson,
And I my Robert Frost. . . ."

("The Dangling Conversation," Simon and Garfunkel)

I think my favorite of hers is "The soul selects her own society."

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh, nice choice!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Off topic, but have you seen this?

http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/arthur-machen-collection-at-risk.html

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Ack! I hadn't seen this. Not good! Thanks so much for the heads up.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

We've been to Caerleon (his home town) a couple of times, where there's nowhere to buy his books. I'll try to go to Newport library soon, to (a) read some interesting stuff and (b) show that it is being used.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

And now this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-30582153

[i-llbedammned.livejournal.com]

I love Dickinson. I have "I'm nobody" memorized by heart.