How many times these low feet staggered
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The famous hermit from Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) published only eight poems during her lifetime. Today her nearly 2,000
. . . MORE »By Emily Dickinson
How many times these low feet staggered —
Only the soldered mouth can tell —
Try — can you stir the awful rivet —
Try — can you lift the hasps of steel!
Stroke the cool forehead — hot so often —
Lift — if you care — the listless hair —
Handle the adamantine fingers
Never a thimble — more — shall wear —
Buzz the dull flies — on the chamber window —
Brave — shines the sun through the freckled pane —
Fearless — the cobweb swings from the ceiling —
Indolent Housewife — in Daisies — lain!
Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.