THE SINGLE HOUND

THE SINGLE HOUND

POEMS OF A LIFETIME

BY
EMILY DICKINSON

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HER NIECE
MARTHA DICKINSON BIANCHI

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1914

Copyright, 1914,
BY MARTHA DICKINSON BIANCHI.
All rights reserved
Published, September, 1914

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

[Page xxi] 

CONTENTS.

• PREFACE v
• Dedicatory Poem, One Sister have I in our house 1

I.

• I. Adventure most unto itself 3
• II. The Soul that hath a Guest 4
• III. Except the smaller size, no Lives are round 5
• IV. Fame is a fickle food 6
• V. The right to perish might be thought 7
• VI. Peril as a possession 8
• VII. When Etna basks and purrs 9
• VIII. Reverse cannot befall that fine Prosperity 10
• IX. To be alive is power 11
• X. Witchcraft has not a pedigree 12
• XI. Exhilaration is the Breeze 13
• XII. No romance sold unto 14
• XIII. If what we could were what we would 15
• XIV. Perception of an Object costs 16
• XV. No other can reduce 17
• XVI. The blunder is to estimate 18
• XVII. My Wheel is in the dark 19
• XVIII. There is another Loneliness 20
• XIX. So gay a flower bereaved the mind 21
• XX. Glory is that bright tragic thing 22

[Page xxii] 

• XXI. The missing All prevented me 23
• XXII. His mind, of man a secret makes 24
• XXIII. The suburbs of a secret 25
• XXIV. The difference between despair 26
• XXV. There is a solitude of space 27
• XXVI. The props assist the house 28
• XXVII. The gleam of an heroic act 29
• XXVIII. Of Death the sharpest function 30
• XXIX. Down Time's quaint stream 31
• XXX. I bet with every Wind that blew 32
• XXXI. The Future never spoke 33
• XXXII. Two lengths has every day 34
• XXXIII. The Soul's superior instants 35

II.

• XXXIV. Nature is what we see 36
• XXXV. Ah, Teneriffe! Retreating Mountain! 37
• XXXVI. She died at play 38
• XXXVII. "Morning" means "Milking" to the Farmer 39
• XXXVIII. A little madness in the Spring 40
• XXXIX. I can't tell you, but you feel it 41
• XL. Some Days retired from the rest 43
• XLI. Like Men and Women shadows walk 44
• XLII. The butterfly obtains 45
• XLIII. Beauty crowds me till I die 46
• XLIV. We spy the Forests and the Hills 47
• XLV. I never told the buried gold 48
• XLVI. The largest fire ever known 50

[Page xxiii] 

• XLVII. Bloom upon the Mountain, stated 51
• XLVIII. March is the month of expectation 53
• XLIX. The Duties of the Wind are few 54
• L. The Winds drew off like hungry dogs 55
• LI. I think that the root of the Wind is Water 56
• LII. So, from the mould 57
• LIII. The long sigh of the Frog 58
• LIV. A cap of lead across the sky 59
• LV. I send two Sunsets 60
• LVI. Of this is Day composed 61
• LVII. The Hills erect their purple heads 62
• LVIII. Lightly stepped a yellow star 63
• LIX. The Moon upon her fluent route 64
• LX. Like some old fashioned miracle 65
• LXI. Glowing is her Bonnet 66
• LXII. Forever cherished be the tree 67
• LXIII. The Ones that disappeared are back 68
• LXIV. Those final Creatures,–who they are 69
• LXV. Summer begins to have the look 70
• LXVI. A prompt, executive Bird is the Jay 71
• LXVII. Like brooms of steel 72
• LXVIII. These are the days that Reindeer love 73
• LXIX. Follow wise Orion 74
• LXX. In Winter, in my room 75

III.

• LXXI. Not any sunny tone 77
• LXXII. For Death,–or rather 78

[Page xxiv] 

• LXXIII. Dropped into the Ether Acre! 79
• LXXIV. This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies 80
• LXXV. 'Twas comfort in her dying room 81
• LXXVI. Too cold is this 82
• LXXVII. I watched her face to see which way 83
• LXXVIII. Today or this noon 84
• LXXIX. I see thee better in the dark 85
• LXXX. Low at my problem bending 86
• LXXXI. If pain for peace prepares 87
• LXXXII. I fit for them 88
• LXXXIII. Not one by Heaven defrauded stay 89
• LXXXIV. The feet of people walking home 90
• LXXXV. We should not mind so small a flower 92
• LXXXVI. To the staunch Dust we safe commit thee 93
• LXXXVII. Her "Last Poems" 94
• LXXXVIII. Immured in Heaven! What a Cell! 95
• LXXXIX. I'm thinking of that other morn 96
• XC. The overtakelessness of those 97
• XCI. The Look of Thee, what is it like 98

IV.

• XCII. The Devil, had he fidelity 99
• XCIII. Papa above! Regard a Mouse 100
• XCIV. Not when we know 101
• XCV. Elijah's wagon knew no thill 102
• XCVI. "Remember me" implored the Thief 103
• XCVII. To this apartment deep 104
• XCVIII. "Sown in dishonor?" 105

[Page xxv] 

• XCIX. Who is it seeks my pillow nights? 106
• C. His Cheek is his Biographer 107
• CI. "Heavenly Father," take to thee 108
• CII. The sweets of Pillage can be known 109
• CIII. A little over Jordan 110
• CIV. Dust is the only secret 111
• CV. Ambition cannot find him 112
• CVI. Eden is that old fashioned House 113
• CVII. Candor, my tepid Friend 114
• CVIII. Speech is a symptom of affection 115
• CIX. Who were "the Father and the Son" 116

V.

• CX. That Love is all there is 118
• CXI. The luxury to apprehend 119
• CXII. The Sea said "Come" to the Brook 120
• CXIII. All I may, if small 121
• CXIV. Love reckons by itself alone 122
• CXV. The inundation of the Spring 123
• CXVI. No Autumn's intercepting chill 124
• CXVII. Volcanoes be in Sicily 125
• CXVIII. Distance is not the realm of Fox 126
• CXIX. The treason of an accent 127
• CXX. How destitute is he 128
• CXXI. Crisis is sweet and, set the Heart 129
• CXXII. To tell the beauty would decrease 130
• CXXIII. To love thee, year by year 131
• CXXIV. I showed her heights she never saw 132

[Page xxvi] 

• CXXV. On my volcano grows the grass 133
• CXXVI. If I could tell how glad I was 134
• CXXVII. Her Grace is all she has 135
• CXXVIII. No matter where the Saints abide 136
• CXXIX. To see her is a picture 137
• CXXX. So set its sun in thee 138
• CXXXI. Had this one day not been 139
• CXXXII. That she forgot me was the least 140
• CXXXIII. The incidents of Love 141
• CXXXIV. Just so, Jesus raps–He does not weary 142
• CXXXV. Safe Despair it is that raves 143
• CXXXVI. The Face we choose to miss 144
• CXXXVII. Of so divine a loss 145
• CXXXVIII. The healed Heart shows its shallow scar 146
• CXXXIX. To pile like Thunder to its close 147
• CXL. The Stars are old, that stood for me 148
• CXLI. All circumstances are the frame 149
• CXLII. I did not reach thee 150

Provenance of the Text.

The copytext for this on-line edition of Emily Dickinson's The single hound; poems of a lifetime. With an introduction by her niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi. is the Boston: Little, Brown, 1914 first edition. A copy of this edition can be found in the rare book room of the Hunt Library, at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

Page breaks have been placed at the beginning of each page, indicated through the use of text as [Page xx]. As the page numbers indicate, the sequence of pages in the original book places the Editor's Preface before the Table of Contents. The preface is also listed in the original table of contents. It has been included here as a separate linked page, linked to only from the table of contents.

This book has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers through the combined work of: Steven van Leeuwen and Mary Mark Ockerbloom.