Joyce DiDonato: Emily – No Prisoner Be

They shut me up in Prose –
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet –
Because they liked me “still” –
Still! Could themself have peeped–
And seen my Brain – go round –
They might as wise have lodged a Bird
For Treason – in the Pound –
Himself has but to will
And easy as a Star
Look down upon Captivity –
And laugh – No more have I –

I was the slightest in the House –
I took the smallest Room –
At night, my little Lamp, and Book –
And one Geranium –
So stationed I could catch the Mint
That never ceased to fall –
And just my Basket –
Let me think – I’m sure –
That this was all –
I never spoke – unless addressed –
And then, ‘twas brief and low –
I could not bear to live – aloud –
The Racket shamed me so –
And if it had not been so far –
And any one I knew
Were going – I had often thought
How noteless – I could die –

The Soul selects her own Society –
Then – shuts the Door –
To her divine Majority –
Present no more –
Unmoved – she notes the Chariots – pausing –
At her low Gate –
Unmoved – an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat –
I’ve known her – from an ample nation –
Choose One –
Then – close the Valves of her attention –
Like Stone –

Again – his voice is at the door –
I feel the old Degree –
I hear him ask the servant
For such an one – as me –
I take a fl ower – as I go –
My face to justify –
He never saw me – in this life –
I might surprise his eye!
I cross the Hall with mingled steps –
I – silent – pass the door –
I look on all this world contains –
Just his face – nothing more!
We talk in careless – and it toss –
A kind of plummet strain –
Each – sounding – shyly –
Just – how – deep –
The other’s one – had been –
We walk – I leave my Dog – at home –
A tender – thoughtful Moon –
Goes with us – just a little way –
And – then – we are alone –
Alone – if Angels are “alone” –
First time they try the sky!
Alone – if those “veiled faces” – be –
We cannot count – on High!
I’d give – to live that hour – again –
The purple – in my Vein –
But He must count the drops

[Instrumental]

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –
Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –

[Instrumental]

A single Clover Plank
Was all that saved a Bee
A Bee I personally knew
From sinking in the sky –
‘Twixt Firmament above
And Firmament below
The Billows of Circumference
Were sweeping him away –
The idly swaying Plank
Responsible to nought
A sudden Freight of Wind assumed
And Bumble Bee was not –
This harrowing event
Transpiring in the Grass
Did not so much as wring from him
A wandering “Alas” –

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading – treading – till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through –
And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum –
Kept beating – beating – till I thought
My mind was going numb –
And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space – began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here –
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down –
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing – then –

I reason, Earth is short –
And Anguish – absolute –
And many hurt,
But, what of that?
I reason, we could die –
The best Vitality
Cannot excel Decay,
But, what of that?
I reason, that in Heaven –
Somehow, it will be even –
Some new Equation, given –
But, what of that?

A little Snow was here and there
Disseminated in her Hair –
Since she and I had met and played
Decade had gathered to Decade –
But Time had added not obtained
Impregnable the Rose
For summer too indelible
Too obdurate for Snows –

I tie my Hat – I crease my Shawl –
Life’s little duties do – precisely –
As the very least
Were infi nite – to me –
I put new Blossoms in the Glass –
And throw the old – away –
I push a petal from my gown
That anchored there – I weigh
The time ‘twill be till six o’clock
I have so much to do –
And yet – Existence – some way back –
Stopped – struck – my ticking – through –
We cannot put Ourself away
As a completed Man
Or Woman – When the Errand’s done
We came to Flesh – upon –
There may be – Miles on Miles of Nought –
Of Action – sicker far –
To simulate – is stinging work –
To cover what we are
From Science – and from Surgery –
Too Telescopic Eyes
To bear on us unshaded –
For their – sake – not for Ours –
Twould start them –
We – could tremble—
But since we got a Bomb –
And held it in our Bosom –
Nay – Hold it – it is calm –
A wandering “Alas” –
Therefore – we do life’s labor –
Though life’s Reward – be done –
With scrupulous exactness –
To hold our Senses – on –

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops at – all –
And sweetest – in the Gale is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of Me.

[Instrumental]

The Props assist the House
Until the House is built
And then the Props withdraw
And adequate, erect,
The House support itself
And cease to recollect
The Augur and the Carpenter –
Just such a retrospect
Hath the perfected Life –
A Past of Plank and Nail
And slowness – then the scaffolds drop
Affirming it a Soul –

There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself –
Finite infinity.

[Instrumental]

Could I but ride indefinite
As doth the Meadow Bee
And visit only where I liked
And No one visit me
And flirt all Day with Buttercups
And marry whom I may
And dwell a little everywhere
Or better, run away
With no Police to follow
Or chase Him if He do
Till He should jump Peninsulas
To get away from me
I said But just to be a Bee
Upon a Raft of Air
And row in Nowhere all Day long
And anchor off the Bar
What Liberty! So Captives deem
Who tight in Dungeons are.

So set its Sun in Thee
What Day be dark to me –
What Distance – far –
So I the Ships may see
That touch – how seldomly –
Thy Shore?

Her face was in a bed of hair,
Like flowers in a plot –
Her hand was whiter than the sperm
That feeds the sacred light.
Her tongue more tender than the tune
That totters in the leaves –
Who hears may be incredulous,
Who witnesses, believes.

Going – to – Her!
Happy – Letter! Tell Her –
Tell Her – the page I never wrote!
Tell Her, I only said – the Syntax –
And left the Verb and the Pronoun – out!
Tell Her just how the fi ngers – hurried –
Then – how they – stammered – slow – slow –
And then – you wished you had eyes –
in your pages –
So you could see – what moved – them – so –
Tell Her – it wasn’t a practised writer –
You guessed –
From the way the sentence – toiled –
You could hear the Bodice – tug – behind you –
As if it held but the might of a child!
You almost pitied – it – you – it worked so –
Tell Her – No – you may quibble – there –
For it would split Her Heart – to know it –
And then – you and I – were silenter!
Tell Her – Day – fi nished before we – fi nished –
And the old Clock kept neighing – “Day”!
And you – got sleepy – and begged to be ended –
What could – it hinder so – to say?
Tell Her – just how she sealed – you – Cautious!
But – if she ask “where you are hid” –
until the evening –
[Ah!] Be bashful!
Gesture Coquette –
And shake your Head!

[Instrumental]

His Feet are shod with Gauze –
His Helmet, is of Gold,
His Breast, a Single Onyx
With Chrysophrase, inlaid.
His Labor is a Chant –
His Idleness – a Tune –
Oh, for a Bee’s experience
Of Clovers, and of Noon!

Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a heart in port –
Done with the compass –
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight –
In thee!

There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, [Austin,]
Never mind silent fields –
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!

‘Tis true – They shut me in the Cold –
But then – Themselves were warm
And could not know the feeling ‘twas –
Forget it – Lord – of Them –
Let not my Witness hinder Them
In Heavenly esteem –
No Paradise could be – Conferred
Through Their beloved Blame –
The Harm They did – was short – And since
Myself – who bore it – do –
Forgive Them – Even as Myself –
Or else – forgive not me –

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

No Prisoner be –
Where Liberty –
[Her]self – abide with Thee –