Emily Dickinson Poems >>
I learned-at least-what Home could be

944

I learned-at least-what Home could be-
How ignorant I had been
Of pretty ways of Covenant-
How awkward at the Hymn

Round our new Fireside-but for this-
This pattern-of the Way-
Whose Memory drowns me, like the Dip
Of a Celestial Sea-

What Mornings in our Garden-guessed-
What Bees-for us-to hum-
With only Birds to interrupt
The Ripple of our Theme-

And Task for Both-
When Play be done-
Your Problem-of the Brain-
And mine-some foolisher effect-
A Ruffle-or a Tune-

The Afternoons-Together spent-
And Twilight-in the Lanes-
Some ministry to poorer lives-
Seen poorest-thro’ our gains-

And then Return-and Night-and Home-

And then away to You to pass-
A new-diviner-care-
Till Sunrise take us back to Scene-
Transmuted-Vivider-

This seems a Home-
And Home is not-
But what that Place could be-
Afflicts me-as a Setting Sun-
Where Dawn-knows how to be-

(Emily Dickinson)

More Poetry from Emily Dickinson:

• Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine (Emily Dickinson Poems)
• Sic transit gloria mundi (Emily Dickinson Poems)
• I cannot live with You (Emily Dickinson Poems)
• The Wind begun to knead the Grass (Emily Dickinson Poems)
• One Year ago-jots what? (Emily Dickinson Poems)
• Your Riches - taugh (Emily Dickinson Poems)

Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:

• The Wild Knight (Gilbert Keith Chesterton Poems)
• Mogg Megone - Part I. (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)
• A Story Of Plantagenet (Nora Pembroke Poems)
• Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto I. (Matthew Prior Poems)
• Birdofredum Sawin; Esq., To Mr. Hosea Biglow (2) (James Russell Lowell Poems)