Συγγνώμη που αναρτώ ποιήματα στα αγγλικά, αλλά όσα έχω διαβάσει στα ελληνικά "χάνουν" πολύ.
~Έμιλυ Ντίκινσον
I took my power in my hand
And went against the world;
’Twas not so much as David had,
But I was twice as bold.
I aimed my pebble, but myself
Was all the one that fell.
Was it Goliath was too large,
Or only I too small?
###
I felt a cleavage in my mind
As if my brain had split;
I tried to match it, seam by seam,
But could not make them fit.
The thought behind I strove to join
Unto the thought before,
But sequence ravelled out of reach
Like balls upon a floor.
###
I felt a funeral in my brain,
And mourners, to and fro,
Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
That sense was breaking through.
And when they all were seated,
A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating, till I thought
My mind was going numb.
And then I heard them lift a box,
And creak across my soul
With those same boots of lead, again,
Then space began to toll
As all the heavens were a bell,
And Being but an ear,
And I and silence some strange race,
Wrecked, solitary, here.
*And then a plank in reason, broke,
And I dropped down and down-
And hit a world at every plunge,
And finished knowing-then-
(*Η τελευταία στροφή του τελευταίου ποιήματος λείπει από την συλλογή "My life had stood a loaded gun")