Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924. |
Part One: Life
CIX
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| THE FARTHEST thunder that I heard | |
| Was nearer than the sky, | |
| And rumbles still, though torrid noons | |
| Have lain their missiles by. | |
| The lightning that preceded it | 5 |
| Struck no one but myself, | |
| But I would not exchange the bolt | |
| For all the rest of life. | |
| Indebtedness to oxygen | |
| The chemist may repay, | 10 |
| But not the obligation | |
| To electricity. | |
| It founds the homes and decks the days, | |
| And every clamor bright | |
| Is but the gleam concomitant | 15 |
| Of that waylaying light. | |
| The thought is quiet as a flake,— | |
| A crash without a sound; | |
| How life’s reverberation | |
| Its explanation found! | 20 |
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