"I've known her from an ample nation / Choose one; / Then close the valves of her attention / Like stone."

— Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)


Place of Publication
Boston
Publisher
Robert Brothers
Date
1890
Metaphor
"I've known her from an ample nation / Choose one; / Then close the valves of her attention / Like stone."
Metaphor in Context
[XIII. Exclusion.] The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.

I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the valves of her attention
Like stone
.
(p. 26)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Dickinson, Emily. Poems by Emily Dickinson Ed. Mael Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson (Robert Brothers: Boston, 1890). <Link to UVa e-Text Center><Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
12/30/2010

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.