E-Text

Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

Part Four: Time and Eternity 111. Bereaved of all, I went abroad

TRYING TO FORGET.


Bereaved of all, I went abroad,

No less bereaved to be

Upon a new peninsula, --

The grave preceded me,


Obtained my lodgings ere myself,

And when I sought my bed,

The grave it was, reposed upon

The pillow for my head.


I waked, to find it first awake,

I rose, -- it followed me;

I tried to drop it in the crowd,

To lose it in the sea,


In cups of artificial drowse

To sleep its shape away, --

The grave was finished, but the spade

Remained in memory.