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Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

Part One: Life 69. Remorse is memory awake

REMORSE.


Remorse is memory awake,

Her companies astir, --

A presence of departed acts

At window and at door.


It's past set down before the soul,

And lighted with a match,

Perusal to facilitate

Of its condensed despatch.


Remorse is cureless, -- the disease

Not even God can heal;

For 't is his institution, --

The complement of hell.