Emily' fragments

From Bolts of Melody, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham, 1945.


*543*

Best things dwell out of sight --
The pearl, the just, our thought;

Most shun the public air
Legitimate and rare;

The capsule of the wind,
The capsule of the mind,

Exhibit here as doth a burr;
Germ's germ be where?

---

*562*

Air has no residence, no neighbor,
No ear, no door,
No apprehension of another -
Oh happy air!

Ethereal guest at e'en an outcast's pillow,
Essential host in life's faint wailing inn,
Later than light thy consciousness accost me
Till it depart, convoying mine.

---

*634*

Society for me my misery
since gift of thee.

---

*656*

Least rivers
Docile to some sea --
My Captain, thee.