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X IN A LIBRARY

Life





X IN A LIBRARY, LIFE by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
An eText from LiteratureClassics.com.

Please see the eText readme for important copyright information (available from the options menu above if you are browsing online or as a separate file in the archive if you are browsing offline.)



A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,

His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.

His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;

What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty.
And Sophocles a man;

When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,

He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true;
He lived where dreams were sown.

His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.






                                                                                    

 

 

Go back to the Dickinson page for related resources.
Move on to the next section in this etext, XI.

Life

I SUCCESS
II
III ROUGE ET NOIR
IV ROUGE GAGNE
V
VI
VII ALMOST!
VIII
IX
X IN A LIBRARY
XI
XII
XIII EXCLUSION
XIV THE SECRET
XV THE LONELY HOUSE
XVI
XVII DAWN
XVIII THE BOOK OF MARTYRS
XIX THE MYSTERY OF PAIN
XX
XXI A BOOK
XXII
XXIII UNRETURNING
XXIV
XXV
XXVI

 


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