1858 夏
From Emily Dickinson’s Poems As She Preserved Them. Edited by Christine Miller
I had a guinea golden -
I lost it in the sand -
And th? the sum was simple
And pounds were in the land -
Still, had it such a value
Unto my frugal eye -
That when I could not find it -
I sat me down to sigh.
I had a crimson Robin -
Who sang full many a day
But when the woods were painted
- He - too - did fly away -
Time brought me other Robins -
Their ballads were the same -
Still, for my missing Troubadour
I kept the "house at hame".
I had a star in heaven -
One "Pleiad" was its name -
And when I was not heeding,
It wandered from the same -
And tho the skies are crowded -
And all the night ashine -
I do not care about it -
Since none of them are mine.
My story has a moral -
I have a missing friend -
"Pleiad" its name - and Robin -
And guinea in the sand -
And when this mournful ditty
Accompanied with tear -
Shall meet the eye of traitor
In country far from here -
Grant that repentance solemn
May seize upon his mind -
And he no consolation
Beneath the sun may find.
Note: thanks ChatGPT for in depth discussion of the 4th stanza to reach an optimized version
There is a morn by men unseen -
Whose maids upon remoter green
Keep their seraphic May -
And all day long, with dance and game,
And gambol I may never name -
Employ their holiday.
Here to light measure, move the feet
Which walk no more the village street -
Nor by the wood are found -
Here are the birds that sought the sun
When last year's distaff idle hung
And summer's brows were bound.
Ne'er saw I such a wondrous scene -
Ne'er such a ring on such a green -
Nor so serene array -
As if the stars some summer night
Should swing their cups of Chrysolite -
And revel till the day -
Like thee to dance - like thee to sing -
People upon that mystic green -
I ask, each new May morn.
I wait thy far - fantastic bells -
Announcing me in other dells -
Unto the different dawn!
As if I asked a common alms -
And in my wondering hand,
A stranger pressed a kingdom -
And I - bewildered stand -
As if I asked the Orient Had it for me a morn?
And it sh'd lift its purple dikes
And flood me with the Dawn!