Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –
Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –
I, just wear my Wings –
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton – sings.
God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I’m going, all along.
~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #236)
Save your sermons for someone that’s afraid to love
If you knew what I feel then you couldn’t be so sure
I’ll be right here lying in the hands of God
If you feel angels in your head
Teardrop of joy runs down your face
You will rise
~ Dave Matthews
♫ (Lying in the Hands of God) ♫
I have listened to the sermon of the woods today and am going back for another sermon. I hope we all shall rise…
Kathy, you are so blessed to live in a song and sermon filled “church.” We will rise!
The idea of an orchard for a dome sounds perfect.
It surely does…
Hi Barbara,
Emily Dickinson was a wonderful American Poet, it really was a shame all her poetry didn’t come into the light until the mid 1950’s. She had a wonderful gift.
Emily is very dear to me. I’m so enchanted by her poems and have delved into biographies about her, too. But I have to admit I have never paid much attention to how or when her poems came to be published!
I was going to say how I love Emily Dickinson’s poetry and this poem you chose, but after reading magsX2’s comment, I had to stop and say “Huh?” “We didn’t know her poetry until the 1950’s?” Really? Why ever not?
Hi dearrosie,
There was only a very small amount of poetry released before the mid 1950’s, I couldn’t remember why, unfortunately it has been a long, long, time since I was at school, so I went searching, and I found her mentioned in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ample_Make_This_Bed
Very good information, it turnes out it was 1955. It is well worth the read.
Thanks so much for answering my question and for including the link mgasx2. Agree with you that it’s well worth the read.
Something else that is well worth reading is Jerome Charyn’s book “The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson” where Charyn pretends he’s Emily Dickinson and makes up a life for her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Charyn
[Emily’s dad bought her a large Newfoundland dog she called Carlo. We call our dog Monte Carlo (I have included a picture of our Monte Carlo on last Saturday’s post)]
Rosie, I’ve just started reading “The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson.” It looks very promising! 🙂 Will have to see if I can find the picture of your Monte Carlo!
Found it! Monte Carlo looks like a healthy happy canine!
Thanks for checking him out Barbara.
We only adopted him last Xmas yet it feels as if we’ve had him for much longer
Thank you for the Wikipedia link, magsx2! I’m glad such an effort has been made to get Emily’s poems published in their original form with her delightfully unique punctuation style.
Hi dearrosie,
I hadn’t heard of Jerome Charyn before. I had a look at the list of his books and I didn’t recognize any of them I must check them out and see it there are any that interest me.
I had a read of Jerome’s Wikipedia page and he seems to be a very interesting novelist. Thank You for the link.