My hair is bold like the chestnut burr; and my eyes, like the sherry in the glass that the guest leaves. This is how Emily Dickinson describes herself. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is one of the best poets of her time. During the 56 years of her life she wrote 597 poems over wide variety of topics including life, nature, love, time and eternity.
Though personally I find the love section the best I have included one poem from each section which is short but so potent that it bought tears to my eyes.
Life:
FORBIDDEN fruit a flavor has
That lawful orchards mocks;
How luscious lies the pea within
The pod that Duty locks!
Can temptation be described any better than this? Four lines that can be read again and again and have so much depth in them that even pages and pages of philosophy wouldn?t be able to do justice to them.
Nature
NATURE rarer uses yellow
Than another hue;
Saves she all of that for sunsets, ?
Prodigal of blue,
Spending scarlet like a woman,
Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly,
Like a lover?s words
Here I find the comparisions so natural and so apt. Each time I read her I am amazed at her imagination. ?Scantly and selectly like a lover?s words? Can I dare to say anything more????
Love I had to include 2 from this part, sorry I am a die hard romantic!!!
LOVE is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath.
Nothing more can be said??..
HEART, we will forget him!
You and I, to-night!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.
When you have done, pray tell me,
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you?re lagging,
I may remember him!
This poem always makes me wonder the kind of pain a person would be in to get such emotions out of herself. This poem according to me is the epitome of separation and longing
Time and eternity
I REASON, earth is short,
And anguish absolute.
And many hurt;
But what of that?
I reason, we could die:
The best vitality
Cannot excel decay;
But what of that?
I reason that in heaven
Somehow, it will be even,
Some new equation given;
But what of that?
I leave you to ponder over this??????