Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924. |
Part One: Life
CXVII
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| I HAVE a king who does not speak; | |
| So, wondering, thro’ the hours meek | |
| I trudge the day away,— | |
| Half glad when it is night and sleep, | |
| If, haply, thro’ a dream to peep | 5 |
| In parlors shut by day. | |
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| And if I do, when morning comes, | |
| It is as if a hundred drums | |
| Did round my pillow roll, | |
| And shouts fill all my childish sky, | 10 |
| And bells keep saying “victory” | |
| From steeples in my soul! | |
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| And if I don’t, the little Bird | |
| Within the Orchard is not heard, | |
| And I omit to pray, | 15 |
| “Father, thy will be done” to-day, | |
| For my will goes the other way, | |
| And it were perjury! | |
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