Poems (Series 2) / by Emily Dickinson [electronic text]

About this Item

Title
Poems (Series 2) / by Emily Dickinson [electronic text]
Author
Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886
Editor
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911, Todd, Mabel Loomis, 1856-1932
Publication
Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company
1910
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Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAE0074.0001.001
Cite this Item
"Poems (Series 2) / by Emily Dickinson [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAE0074.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 6, 2024.

Pages

LIII.
RETURNING.

I YEARS had been from home, And now, before the door, I dared not open, lest a face I never saw before
Stare vacant into mine And ask my business there. My business, — just a life I left, Was such still dwelling there?
I fumbled at my nerve, I scanned the windows near; The silence like an ocean rolled, And broke against my ear.
I laughed a wooden laugh That I could fear a door, Who danger and the dead had faced, But never quaked before.

Page 81

I fitted to the latch My hand, with trembling care, Lest back the awful door should spring, And leave me standing there.
I moved my fingers off As cautiously as glass, And held my ears, and like a thief Fled gasping from the house.

Page 82

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