E-Text

Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

Part One: Life 13. The soul selects her own society


EXCLUSION.


The soul selects her own society,

Then shuts the door;

On her divine majority

Obtrude no more.


Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing

At her low gate;

Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling

Upon her mat.


I've known her from an ample nation

Choose one;

Then close the valves of her attention

Like stone.